NASA claims that many channels photographed by satellites orbiting Mars were carved by water, however some scientists believe that the substance that flowed is carbon dioxide in a rare liquid state
NASA said that its scientists have found strong evidence that liquid water flowed in the recent geological past on the surface of Mars. The findings add weight to the idea that Mars may have contained the conditions for life.
"These observations provide the most recent evidence that water still flows from time to time on the surface of Mars," says Michael Meir, chief scientist at NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington in a conversation with the NASA website.
The appearance of channels uncovered by spacecraft orbiting Mars has led to speculation that water has flowed on the surface in recent years. However, other scientists believe that it is possible that it is the carbon dioxide that in a rare way has become liquid.
The latest studies began when the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, before it stopped operating and broadcasting, photographed channels and cracks that scientists believe are geologically young areas and that they were created by water that flowed fast and leveled its path down cliffs and steep walls of craters.
The scientists at the Malin Space Science Center in San Diego, who operate the MGS camera, decided to re-image thousands of channels in search of evidence of water activity from the recent past. Both craters were originally photographed in 1999 and 2001 and again in 2004 and 2005. Changes were observed between these photographs that correspond to the possibility that the water flowed down the crater wall. In both cases, the scientists found light-colored deposits in the channels that were not present in the original images. They came to the conclusion that these sediments, most likely mud, salt or frost were left when the water flowed through these channels not long ago.
Other scientists claim that it is possible that channels like these were formed not by water but by the flow of liquid carbon dioxide. One of the reasons for preferring carbon dioxide was that computer models of the Martian soil crust showed that flowing water could only be found there at a depth of a few kilometers. In contrast, carbon dioxide may form much closer to the surface, where temperatures can drop as low as 107 degrees Celsius below zero.
Oded Abramson, assistant professor of planetary sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has long said that while the evidence for fresh water activity on Mars is quite convincing, this is only one explanation. According to him, more in-depth research is needed to determine if the precipitation was formed at all as a result of the flow of dust and not water.
The answer to this question may determine the likelihood of life on Mars. The scientists suggest that reservoirs of liquid water could exist beneath the surface of Mars, and this could provide a habitat for microscopic animals.
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which year ?
I believe that this and many more are solid proofs of the possibility that once upon a time many many years ago there was life there... I think that by the time we get there it will be at least another 20-25 years and by the end of the century the planet will already be inhabited to a large extent. I hope that the human race will reach Mars at the end of the quarter century and settle it completely by the end of the century. I hope that all human beings (of the enlightened ones) will unite without differences of race, gender, nationality and religion, colonize Mars in the future and lead the human race into the real space age in which humans not only explore space but also colonize it.
Come on, start moving the country to Mars, and it's better one hour before, and that's how we'll get rid of the Palestinians, the Syrians, and the baboon from Tehran (Ahmadi Nejad the dwarf).
On Mars the temperatures are colder than a winter day in Siberia, so if there are living things, then they are microscopic, and it will take us a good few years to get there.
If it is possible to live there, it is better to run away, to start the whole world over again!
Next year in the built Mars!
How beautiful, if they find out that it was water that flowed there, it will be a breakthrough and proof for all the doubters so far, and even if not and it was carbon dioxide in a liquid state (CO2l), it will still be amazing, that this gas was formed there underground and burst, carbon dioxide is A substance that is hard to imagine in a liquid state, it soars (turns from solid to liquid). Kudos to the research team!