Large Deposit Of Hidden Water Discovered On Mars
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Researchers have long suspected that Mars was once home to several rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans. But while they have been able to detect ice, and some salty lakes, in the planet's polar regions, finding water in other areas has proved elusive. Now, scientists have finally found evidence of a large water reservoir just a few feet below the surface of the Red Planet's Valles Marineris canyon system.
Located along the equator of Mars, the Valles Marineris is one of the Solar System's largest canyons. The massive tectonic chasm measures over 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) long and 5 miles (8 km) deep. NASA estimates that if the Valles Marineris were on Earth, it would stretch across the continental United States — all the way from New York to California.
"We found a central part of Valles Marineris to be packed full of water — far more water than we expected," said study co-author Alexey Malakhov, a scientist at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "This is very much like Earth's permafrost regions, where water ice permanently persists under dry soil because of the constant low temperatures."
The discovery was made using data collected by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which has been circling the Red Planet since 2018. TGO, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), is designed to detect the presence of gases such as methane and water vapor in the Martian atmosphere. The researchers say that between May 2018 to February 2021, the orbiter's Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) found an unusually large amount of hydrogen — a measure of water content – in the '
The scientists, who revealed their findings in a press statement on December 15, 2021, suspect the water is in the form of ice. If true, it could make up as much as 40 percent of the area's near-surface material. However, FREND could also be detecting water that is chemically bound to minerals in the soil. The team plans to analyze more data to determine the water's form. Regardless of the outcome, they believe the discovery is a game-changer for potential human missions to the Red Planet.
"Knowing more about how and where water exists on present-day Mars is essential to understand what happened to Mars' once-abundant water, and helps our search for habitable environments, possible signs of past life, and organic materials from Mars' earliest days," says Colin Wilson, ESA's TGO project scientist.
Resources: www.esa.in, Live Science.com
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177 Comments
brooklynjover 2 yearsWow! This gives us more proof that there could be creatures living on Mars or use to. This gives us more information about Mars and see how creatures live and so much! I can't wait to see how much more stuff we learn about Mars! Whats yalls favriote planet?
yall_noobsover 2 yearsOkay so, to all you guys who want to go to Mars, let me address some things. To be able to travel in space you either have to be Elon Musk or a astronaut. If you guys payed attention, the new rover that is going to Mars is landing there in 2023 which would mean, if you guys wanted to wait a year maybe more to go to Mars, go ahead. Another thing is that civilization would probably take over 200 years to fully have it open to the public to go back and fourth to live there. Air of course is also vital to need to live there. Not sure how or even if it’s possible to keep and atmosphere or form one but we’ll leave that up to the scientists. By the way, I am not trying to crush your guys dreams. I just see many comments about people going to Mars and I wanted to inform you guys.
free_from_lifeover 2 yearsWater on mars? That's amazing it must have been frozen for so long and then turned back into water!
glitergirl4evsover 2 yearsI LOVE IT
hi-hiover 2 yearsYeah! I want to live on Mars!
ash646over 2 yearsThis is so cool I hope I can go to space some day
kittycat6784over 2 yearsyou can join NASA and go to space
- kittycat6784over 2 yearsomg sooo unbelievable😲
i_love_australiover 2 yearsMaybe I will see for sure if mars has water but that not tell 12 years😭
carlisleover 2 yearsIt is only 5 years until they build the spaceship and send people to Mars.- yall_noobsover 2 yearsIt’s an estimated amount, it could be longer or shorter. No one really knows because no one’s been in the future.
linklegend2022over 2 yearsWait water is oxygen and hydro something so there is oxygen on mars???- rockstarhare26over 2 yearsThere is a little bit of oxygen on mars, but not much
- kittycat6784over 2 yearswater is H2O (hydragin and oxygen) so a little oxygen on Mars
dbhover 2 yearsBut really it depends on how much water there is, because like you said "Water is H2O (hydrogen and oxygen)." depending on how much the volume of the water is there will be more oxygen. But oxygen isn't what's all in the air that we breathe. But still good theory 😉.- jaewanthegeniusover 2 yearsAbout 2~5% of Mars atmosphere is oxygen.
- linklegend2022over 2 yearsDoes this mean we can live on mars now
- dbhover 2 yearsOxygen isn't what's all in the air that we breathe so I don't think so.
- yall_noobsover 2 yearsNo, we can’t live on Mars until there is more water, food, and a atmosphere.
vegataover 2 yearsyeah ( i think so ) 🤔
theshelbmeisterover 2 yearsi think i'm going to agree with you, i would assume we could.
- rockstarhare26over 2 yearsNo. Not exactly. Even though Mars has water on it, it is still a gas planet, and many of those gasses are really dangerous or even toxic for us to breath in. Although, it would be really cool if we could live on mars!
- kittycat6784over 2 yearsnot yet not enough oxygen
gemgemover 2 yearsno, I don't think you can
trickyhacker33over 2 yearsMoxie, or Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment absorbes gases and creates oxygen
