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| WATER ON MARS!! | | | Dr. Pragya Khanna
The latest News on Mars,
the Red Planet having
water on its surface has once again triggered a series of incidences of nosiness, inquisitiveness and interest by the common people who are by no means high end scientists but have a great passion and zeal for such scientific stimulations. Such News expose from the world of Science incite excitement and thrill in the young minds and encourage them to explore further on the aspects and carry on the legacy of scientific studies.
The five elements of nature (panchamahabhuta) include water, earth, fire, air and ether (sky), and out of these elements water is considered the building block of life. We need water to survive and prosper; without it, we would have no food to eat, no clothes to wear, no nature to admire and live within, and nothing to help us remain healthy. In addition to understanding how Mars may have changed and developed over time, scientists hope that finding water will help them to find something even more valuable, that is, life, either in past or in present. Till date only Earth is known to host life and life on our planet requires water. Whether life could plausibly evolve without depending on this valued liquid is still not known, however, scientists can only ponder over more with the information that already exists. Therefore they anticipate that tracing water on celestial bodies such as Mars will lead to finding indication for life on the Red Planet.
With this in mind, NASA developed a strategy for exploring the Red Planet that takes as its mantra 'follow the water'. Recent orbiters, landers and rovers sent to Mars were designed to search for water, rather than life, in the hopes of finding environments where life could have thrived.
Observations of the Red Planet indicate that rivers and oceans may have been prominent features in its early history. Billions of years ago, Mars was a warm and wet world that could have supported microbial life in some regions. But the planet is smaller compared to Earth, with less gravity and a thinner atmosphere. Over time, as liquid water evaporated, more and more of it escaped into space, allowing less to fall back to the surface of the planet. Liquid water exists on the surface of Mars during the planet's warmer seasons, according to new research published in Nature Geosciences. Liquid water seems to flow from some vertical, relatively warm slopes on the Martian surface. The scientists studying images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) noticed dark stripes/streakes that appear during warm weather but fade away when temperatures drop. Spectral analysis of these streaks, called recurring slope linae (RSL), lead scientists to conclude they are caused by salty liquid water.
According to scientists, there may be more water frozen just beneath the surface, covered by the dry red dust that blankets the planet. Some high-latitude regions appear to have ground-shapes in definite patterns that may have formed as permafrost in the soil that freezes and thaws over time. The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft captured images of sheets of ice in the cooler, shadowed bottoms of craters.
NASA has promoted these findings as the explanation to a major Mars mystery: does the Red Planet truly have liquid water on its surface? Researchers have known that water exists in ice form on Mars, but it has never been confirmed if water can remain in the liquid state. The space agency is claiming that we now have that answer.
Scientists have theorized for years that Mars was once home to a large ocean more than 4 billion years ago. When Mariner 9 became the first craft to orbit another planet in 1971, the photographs it returned of dry river beds and canyons gave the impression that water had once existed on the Martian surface. Images from the Viking orbiters only strengthened the idea that many of the landforms may have been created by running water. Data from the Viking landers pointed to the presence of water beneath the surface, but the experiments were deemed inconclusive and open to doubt.
The early '90s kicked off a swing of Mars missions. Scientists were flooded with a wealth of information about Mars. Three NASA orbiters and one sent by the European Space Agency studied the planet from above, mapping the surface and analyzing the minerals below. Some detected the presence of minerals, indicating the presence of water. Other data measured enough subsurface ice to fill Lake Michigan twice. They found evidence for the presence of hot springs on the surface and sustained precipitation at some areas. And they found patches of ice within some of the deeper craters.
NASA's Curiosity rover is the fifth robot to land on the surface of the Red Planet in the last 15 years. Pathfinder, Phoenix, Spirit and Opportunity all took detailed measurements of the planet; all but Phoenix travelled across the surface collecting a treasure trove of information. Curiosity has found yet more evidence of water flowing on ancient Mars. The 1-ton rover rolled through an ancient stream bed shortly after touching down in August 2012, and it has examined a number of rocks that were exposed to liquid water billions of years ago. Today's findings appear to offer more direct confirmation of liquid water than most, though the study only confirms what NASA has long assumed that flowing liquid water forms the strange, dark stripes/streakes that have been observed on Mars. These stripes/streakes called recurring slope lineae were first observed by the MRO spacecraft in 2010. The lines are blackish and narrow at less than 16 feet across. During the warmer seasons, the stripes/streakes grow thicker and longer; they then fade and shrink at times when Mars is colder. This led scientists to believe years ago that perhaps water and salt were involved in the creation of these lines. According to John Bridges, a professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester, the study was fascinating, but might throw up some fresh concerns for space agencies. The flows could be used to find water sources on Mars, making them prime spots to hunt for life, and to land future human missions.
The idea whether there is life on Mars has intrigued people for centuries, and one that I, perhaps like you, have wondered about for most of my own life. Still, there are scientists and researchers who say that it makes sense for such discussions and research to focus on Mars, which is close to Earth and appears as a target for human exploration down the road but interestingly Mars also serves as a laboratory of sorts for further investigations into planetary science and future explorations. |
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