NASA, according to photographs sent by a spacecraft in orbit around Mars, has announced that it is salt water that flows through surface cracks. The U.S. space agency, NASA, through the website Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, has unveiled what could be astronomical news of the year: the possible existence of water flowing on Mars in some latitudes of the planet, particularly in the Newton Crater.
The study data come from a probe into orbit:
This statement is being studied by scientists at the lab after seeing the images sent by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The probe is equipped with a high resolution HiRISE camera. The goal has been a series of slopes where their appearance changes as winter or summer. It has even been able to see certain colors in crevices of cliffs where the beginning of spring turns different colors.
To change the color of the land according to the season, points directly to the effect of temperature on this feature. Mars is a planet really cold. Far from the Sun about 200 million miles, 50 more than the Earth. That distance is sufficient for the effects of solar radiation to be sufficiently lower than the world average temperatures are between 40 and 60 degrees lower than on Earth.
Changes things, according to Alfred McEwen, principal author of scientific study could be due to the flow of water to circulate through the cracks of the slopes, as published by the edition of CNN.
“What makes these comments so interesting is occurring at lower latitudes, where temperatures are warmer and less extreme and where the conditions for the existence of water” Plays Phil Christensen, a geophysicist at the University of Arizona and participated in the study.
Mars, a planet with mysteries to unravel:
In equatorial regions of the planet subjected to more hours of sunlight, the temperature at the Martian south rarely reaches 20 degrees Celsius. As for switching to more southern or southern latitudes, it is difficult for the temperature rise of 4 degrees Celsius. And much less at night, in which the temperature drops dramatically to 60 degrees below zero. A behavior similar to what happens in some deserts on Earth.
In previous observations of the probe, it has been shown that in some places the subsoil has a high salt content, a vestige of ancient oceans may. Therefore, the water would flow would also have to be salt which would offer an explanation for the resistance to freeze in the warmer seasons. “7 have already been confirmed sites where the phenomenon has been observed and investigated 20 other locations are more”Stated McEwen.
However, as soil conditions and the Martian atmosphere, the density and viscosity of salt water must be greater than we usually see on Earth, “They would look like syrup”Said McEwen, who then indicated that this proves the existence of water on Mars but rather provides a plausible explanation for the observations. In fact, the explanation that best fits all that have been considered.
Could life exist on Mars:
According to the NASA administrator, Charles Bolden, the Mars Exploration Program continues to provide data to scientists, who are the ones who determine if the planet could harbor some form of life. “This finding confirms the viability and importance of Mars as a destination for future human exploration” Bolden said.
According to Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences at Indiana University, the significance of this finding regarding the possible life on Mars suggests that if liquid water is at certain seasons and freezes in the colder, we could determine that If there was any life in it, agencies would have cycles of hibernation, as happens in some species on Earth. According to Pratt, this is the first opportunity for the human being to look at an environment on Mars that may harbor some kind of active biological process.
Previous studies revealed evidence of water:
In 2010 they observed other images sent by the Mars Global Surveyor those observed in certain spots elongated in the bottom of some cliffs. On that occasion Dr. Christensen gave a press conference to explain the finding. It is also speculated that the human being was approaching the discovery of life on Mars. The report arising from the discovery of 2010 also cited the possible salinization of water from the absorption of salts from the ground.
This month marks 36 years of the launch of the first probe to Mars, the Viking I, along with Viking and Mariner II traveled and even landed on Mars. On that project, which opened the door to the search for life on Mars was actively involved as scientific advisor, Carl Sagan astronomer and broadcaster known for many works of highlighting the TV series Cosmos in 1980.
