Recently, scientists have made an astounding discovery that can change the entire course of Mars exploration. Apparently, there are oceans of liquid water on the red planet. So, the future looks bright. We could use this water to support future missions and then even relocate to Mars since we wouldn’t need to worry about where to get this precious liquid, right? Well, there’s one big problem. These oceans of liquid water are in Mars, so deep inside that we aren’t likely to get there. At least that’s what a new analysis of seismic data collected by the Mars InSight lander claims. Huge reserves of liquid water seem to be the best explanation for some seismic quirks of the red planet. So, all this precious water is out of our reach, but we need to find it to solve the puzzle of the aquatic history of our blushing dusty neighbor.
And the first thing we need to do is identify where the water is and how much of it the planet is hiding. Navigation has confirmed that the parachute has deployed and we’re seeing significant deceleration. Now, our rovers are scurrying about on the surface of the red planet gathering all the available data on the planet’s surface geology. And it’s getting increasingly obvious that Mars was once covered with water. Many factors from Martian terrains to ancient dry lake beds and deltas suggest that there was a time when the planet was quite sloppy. These days, there’s still some water on and right below the surface of Mars, but it’s in the form of ice and nowhere near what Mars had in the ancient past. To understand how much of it could have been on the red planet billions of years ago, we must know where all this water went.
There are two spots where the water could have gone, into space or toward the interior of Mars. Then it could have been isolated as either liquid reservoirs or ice deposits. Currently, we don’t have any way of measuring how much water once leaked away. But now, we finally can find out more about the gooey center of the red planet. All thanks to the Mars Insight lander. It isn’t operating anymore, but from November 2018 to December 2022, it was listening to the hums and rumbles and monitoring the activity below its feet. The thing is, acoustic waves generated by seismic activity deep inside the planet can change according to the composition and density of the material these waves are moving through. And scientists can get a lot of information analyzing the behavior of seismic waves.
In this case, they used a model similar to those used to map underground oil fields and aquifers on our home planet. Then, with the help of this model, they analyzed the data gathered by InSight on Mars. They discovered that the best explanation could be that there was a layer of fractured rocks whose cracks were filled with water deep under the surface of the red planet. That layer could be at a depth of 7 to 12 miles. That’s why it would be extremely tricky for future missions to get to it. And still, the new discovery could help us understand the Martian water cycle. Confirming the existence of a large reservoir of liquid water can help us sneak a peek at what the climate on Mars used to be or what it could be like one day.
And if once Mars had a lot of water, it could have been habitable in the ancient past and might become habitable in the future. Water is crucial for life as we know it. So, underground water reservoirs on the red planet could already be habitable. Maybe while we’re talking, tiny microorganisms or even some tentacled creatures are living their lives in the comfort of their underground home. On Earth, super deep mines do host life, and the bottom of the ocean, with its immense unbelievable pressures, isn’t lifeless, either. So far, we haven’t found any evidence of life on Mars, but for now, it sounds like this place has the potential to sustain life. InSight data has shown that there isn’t likely to be a lot of water ice in the upper crust of the planet, at least in the region around the lander.
But, if it turns out that there is a water-rich layer deep below the surface, and stretching around the entire globe of the planet, then there would be enough water to fill ancient ocean beds, and even more. Now, Mars isn’t the only place outside Earth where there is water, or where we might one day find water. Take the good old moon, for example. On Earth’s natural satellite, water can be found all over the surface, but it’s not the water you might be imagining. On the moon, water remains mostly as ice, and it’s distributed unevenly. For example, the poles of the moon are the regions that never receive sunlight. This is the reason they’re extremely cold, and it’s no wonder there’s a lot of ice there. The ice in these areas is often mixed with the lunar soil, and hiding deep below the surface.
Then, there’s Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn. In reality, it’s not that large, just 314 mi across. In other words, this moon is small enough to fit inside Arizona. Ooh, we should try that. Well, interestingly, when the Cassini space probe first arrived at Saturn, researchers were expecting Enceladus to be a frozen ball of ice. But, what they saw was plumes of icy particles and water vapor erupting from geysers on the moon’s surface. It was clear that there was a massive ocean between the moon’s rocky core and its icy shell. Then, there’s Jupiter’s moon Europa. Scientists think that this world is one of the most promising places in the solar system when it comes to searching for new life forms. That’s because Europa has a huge saltwater ocean as deep as 40 to 100 miles.
And even though it’s under a layer of ice that is likely to be 10 to 20 miles thick, it’s still potentially habitable. Astronomers believe that plumes of water might erupt from cracks in the ice shell and release the contents of the moon’s ocean into space. The temperature, pressure, and chemistry are very different on Europa. And astronomers aren’t sure yet how the ice behaves there. That’s the main reason they haven’t figured out yet how deep or large the water reservoirs on Europa are and how long they need to refreeze. But, out of all the places where we could find water in the universe, the most bizarre is probably open space. In 2011, two teams of astronomers discovered a cloud of water floating freely among stars. It was the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected. So, this massive cloud of water vapor surrounds a black hole.
But, not just any black hole. This one’s a quasar located 12 billion light-years from Earth. The conditions around this quasar must be really special to create such an enormous amount of water. This cloud contains 140 trillion times the volume of all the water on Earth. That’s enough to give every person on the planet a whole planet’s worth of water 20,000 times over. Sounds wild, doesn’t it? But, there’s something even cooler. Astronomers think this water cloud formed just 1. 6 billion years after the universe began. This discovery is yet another sign that water has been around all over the universe, even in its early days. But, here’s the kicker. Until they found this, scientists had never detected water vapor so far back in time. Sure, there’s water in our Milky Way galaxy, but most of it’s frozen solid in ice.
This discovery really pushes the boundaries of what we know about water in the universe. The soil beneath your feet is red and dry. The place is freezing cold. Rusty-colored dust is floating in the air. You make one step, then another. It’s hard to move because of the thick layer of dust your feet are sinking into. You’re on Mars. And you’ve come here after hearing some absolutely incredible news. These days, the so-called red planet indeed looks dry and dusty, but scientists think that this world might have been very different a long, long time ago. They have found some evidence of a huge ocean that could have existed on the surface of Mars about 3. 5 billion years ago. And this ocean probably covered hundreds of thousands of square miles. It all started with numerous satellite images of the surface of the red planet.
They were snapped at different angles. As a result, researchers managed to construct a relief map of the area. They charted out more than 4,000 miles of specific formations that had most likely been carved by rivers. Those formations could also be channels once carved out on the seafloor. Scientists used the data gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2007. They analyzed the thickness of the ridges and their angles and location. Their main goal was to explore the topographical depression called Aeolis Dorsa. It turned out that all those years ago, this part of the red planet had been undergoing a series of constant changes. They could have been caused by the rapid movement of rocks, pulled around by currents and rivers, as well as noticeable increases in sea level.
Researchers also noticed a pretty clear boundary that separated the southern highlands of Mars, elevated and highly cratered, from the smooth lowlands of the planet. It looked very similar to a shoreline left by a giant enormous ocean. This all likely means that in ancient times, there indeed was an ocean on the surface of Mars. And a large one at that. What is even more exciting, the existence of such an ocean might mean the existence of life. This discovery can tell scientists a lot about the ancient climate on the red planet, as well as its evolution. We now know there had to be a period on Mars when the planet was quite warm, and its atmosphere was thick enough to keep so much liquid water.
What’s even more incredible, the climate in the northern hemisphere of Mars 3 billion years ago could have resembled the one we have on Earth nowadays. But then, where is this ocean now? What happened to it? Perhaps, the climate of the red planet was becoming cooler and the surface of the ocean froze. There’s a theory claiming that these days, the ocean remains in its frozen state deep under a layer of rock, debris, and dust under a northern plain called Vastitas Borealis. Or the ocean’s waters could have been lost to the atmosphere and eventually space through the process of atmospheric sputtering. During this process, atoms get knocked away from the atmosphere after colliding with high-energy particles coming from the sun. Anyway, the The of an ocean that once covered a substantial part of Mars’ northern hemisphere hasn’t been confirmed yet. Scientists are still arguing about its existence.
As for now, Mars is a very cold world with an average temperature of 80° F. The planet’s surface is rocky. It’s covered with dry lake beds, craters, volcanoes, and canyons. The ocean that might have existed on Mars isn’t the only awesome thing about this planet. Let’s speak about those sandstorms raging on the red planet. In movies, they’re depicted as incredibly powerful forces of nature, destroying astronauts’ camps and tearing their spaceships into pieces. But how much of it is true? Mars is indeed infamous for producing dust storms so massive they can be seen by telescopes on Earth. They sometimes cover continent-sized areas and can last for weeks at a time. But besides them, there are much rarer storms that occur once in three Mars years, which is about five and a half Earth years. Such storms are larger and much more intense than regular ones.
They encircle the entire planet. That’s why scientists call them global dust storms. At the same time, it’s unlikely that even a global dust storm could cause serious harm to astronauts or their equipment. Even though Martian storms are massive, the wind speed reaches 60 mph tops. That’s less than half the speed of most hurricane-force winds on Earth. Plus, this comparison of wind speeds can be kind of misleading. The atmosphere on Mars is just 1% or so as dense as the atmosphere of our planet. It means that the wind there needs to blow much faster to cause any damage or even fly a kite. Now, let’s move to the next amazing phenomenon spotted on the red planet. When you look at it from a distance, it looks like an eye. There are even some winding channels that look like veins running through the eyeball.
But, the closer you get, the less the formation looks like an actual eye. It’s actually a giant crater almost 19 mi in diameter. Around the crater, which looks as if it has a pupil, there are other even bigger craters. They likely formed billions of years ago. That’s when Mars had to withstand multiple attacks of space rocks. But, why is the eye crater darker than the surrounding landscape? Scientists think that once water filled the ginormous pit. Remember those channels? They were likely carrying that water. And since the crater was filled with water, it stopped some substances and minerals from eroding away. Your next destination is Valles Marineris. That’s an enormous canyon, or rather a canyon system, that runs along Mars’s equator. It stretches for more than 2,500 mi. It’s also four times as deep as the famous Grand Canyon on Earth.
The thing is so huge, it could span the entire continental United States from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Most scientists think that Valles Marineris is a huge tectonic crack in the crust of the red planet. It could have formed when the planet was cooling down in the distant past. Another breathtaking sight on Mars is the largest shield volcano in the entire solar system, Olympus Mons. It’s more than 370 mi in diameter, which means it’s almost the same size as the state of Arizona. The mountain is also 16 mi high and rimmed by incredibly tall cliffs. To imagine the sheer size of the volcano, let’s make some comparisons. The largest volcano on Earth is Mauna Loa, around 2. 6 mi high and 75 mi across, which actually sounds pretty impressive. But, the volume of Olympus Mons is around 100 times larger than that of Mauna Loa.
The Martian giant could swallow the whole chain of Hawaiian Islands from Kauai to Hawaii. Scientists have been wondering for quite some time why this volcano is so large. It might be the result of lower surface gravity and higher eruption rates. Or, the reason may be the red planet’s crust, which is very different from Earth’s. On our planet, the crust is made up of 15 to 20 moving tectonic plates. As plates move over hotspots that produce lava, new volcanoes form, and the already existing ones become extinct. That’s why lava can get to the surface through many vents. But, on Mars, the crust isn’t broken into the same tectonic plates as on Earth. And the lava has nothing to do but pile in one very, very large volcano. Now, if you visited Mars and decided to go on an evening stroll, you’d witness a strange phenomenon.
It occurs on the red planet after sunset, when temperatures fall below 80 AF. A bizarre, mysterious glow spreads across the Martian sky. Unfortunately, without special equipment, you wouldn’t be able to observe this soft glow. Visible only in ultraviolet light, this nightglow is the result of chemical reactions that occurred dozens of miles above the surface of the red planet. Hmm, it looks like a regular beach, but something sets off an alarm blaring in your head. The sand looks too red. The sun is too bright. The wind is all wrong, it’s hard to breathe, and there’s no water in the ocean? Panic not, it’s normal since you’re on Mars. For the longest time, we’ve seen Mars as a dry, lifeless dust ball, a freezing desert where water exists only as ice or vapor.
But new research suggests that billions of years ago, it was a totally different place, and instead of endless dust, it may have had something much more familiar to us: sunny, sandy beaches. Scientists from Penn State, UC Berkeley, and Guangzhou University studied radar data from China’s Zhurong rover. It started to roll across Mars in 2021. While exploring the surface of the red planet, it found sloping rock formations that looked strikingly similar to the ones found on Earth’s coastlines. Those are called foreshore deposits. They form when waves push sand onto a shoreline. But Zhurong wasn’t just taking pretty pictures. It also had ground-penetrating radar, a tool that allowed it to scan deep below the Martian surface as it traveled 2 km between May 2021 and May 2022. And it found something pretty wild: layers of sediment sloping down at a 15-degree angle.
This pattern is identical to the ones left behind by waves on Earth. And not, this wasn’t from wind, volcanoes, or anything else. It looked just like a real beach. And that’s actually a big deal. Because if there were waves and tides, there must have been a large body of water. That means Mars may have once had just the right conditions for hosting life. Even after 3. 5 billion years, the formations are still incredibly similar to beaches on Earth. So, there must have been a time when Mars was much more than just a dusty rock in space. After revealing this shocking news, Zhurong’s radar scanned 79 m deep into the ground, discovering sediment layers. They once formed along a path perpendicular to an ancient shoreline, the one that likely existed 4 billion years ago. At the same time, it might not be all that surprising.
Back then, Mars wasn’t the dry, frozen wasteland we see today. It had a thicker atmosphere, a warmer climate, and plenty of liquid water. And I’m not even talking about some tiny puddle. Beaches don’t form without a massive body of water. For waves to shape the land like this, there had to be rivers flowing into a vast ocean. Powerful currents had to be moving sand around, and water had to stick around for a long time. This couldn’t be just a brief wet spell. It was a period where Mars was hydrologically active for millions of years, potentially being a place where life could have thrived. This discovery gives even more weight to one theory. It has been puzzling scientists since the 1970s. That was when NASA’s Viking spacecraft snapped images of what looked like a shoreline wrapping around Mars’ northern hemisphere. But, there was a problem.
The shoreline was all over the place with elevations varying by up to 10 km, which is nothing like our flat, mostly consistent shorelines we see on Earth. This difference made scientists doubt that a Martian ocean ever existed. For years, scientists have been trying to crack this mystery. In 2007, they suggested that Mars’ rotation actually shifted billions of years ago. As the planet’s massive Tharsis volcanic region grew, the planet’s spin axis tilted, warping the surface. It could explain why the shoreline is so uneven today. In other words, what was once a flat and level landscape got distorted over time. Interestingly, Mars has been dropping hints about its watery past for years. Curiosity found ancient ripples in Gale Crater. Those were signs of a long-gone lake. Perseverance is currently studying a fossilized river delta in Jezero crater.
Now, with Zhurong’s evidence of an ancient ocean, it all comes together. Small lakes, check. Rivers, check. A massive ocean covering the northern lowlands, quite possibly. Zhurong’s mission wrapped up in May 2022 after dust blocked its solar panels, but future missions could still explore those ancient shoreline deposits. Scientists might send new missions to drill deeper into the ground to retrieve samples, or we could use better radar to map Mars’s subsurface in more detail. There’s a real hope to excavate those areas in the future and find even more clues about Mars’s past. At the same time, NASA’s Perseverance rover is already working hard in Jezero crater, collecting samples. Scientists hope that it will bring them back to Earth in the 2030s. While those won’t include samples from the ancient ocean, they could still help us find out more about Mars’s wetter history.
For now, the discovery of ancient beaches on Mars gives us a peek into a time when the planet might have looked a lot more like Earth, with water, waves, and rivers. Now, let’s speak about the Perseverance rover that’s still working on Mars in more detail. It has a special drill on its arm and uses it to scrape off the dust and top layers of rock, making small 5 cm wide circles in Jezero crater. Once, one of its cameras took a close-up photo, and the image showed that the rock wasn’t smooth. It was made of tiny interlocking crystals. The rover used two special tools to analyze the rock’s chemistry. The results confirmed that the rock, named Rochette, was volcanic. This meant it formed from lava or magma, not from mud and clay like scientists had expected from a former lake bed.
Perseverance, aka Percy, landed on Mars in February 2021 along with a small helicopter named Ingenuity. It is the most advanced rover ever sent to Mars following in the footsteps of Curiosity, Spirit, Opportunity, and others. But Percy has a different mission. While older rovers mainly studied Martian rocks and climate, Perseverance is searching for signs of past life. Scientists chose Jezero Crater because it looks like it used to be a lake where tiny life forms could have lived. The rover drills, scrapes, and collects rock samples to study with its science tools. It also saves some samples to bring back to Earth in the future for even closer study. Perseverance has found some surprising things on Mars. Scientists studying the data it sent back have discovered that Jezero Crater has changed a lot over time.
Long ago, this area had flowing lava, a lake that lasted for thousands of years, rivers that carried mud and sand, and even massive floods that brought in rocks from far away. It means that Jezero’s history is more active and unpredictable than scientists expected. This definitely made it harder to find the sedimentary rocks they were looking for, but it has also revealed new places where ancient life might have existed. Another exciting discovery is that every rock Perseverance has studied so far contains carbon-based materials, the same stuff that life on Earth is built from. NASA’s Perseverance rover also carries a special tool called MOXIE, which has managed to make oxygen from the carbon dioxide in Mars’s atmosphere for the first time. Over 16 test runs, MOXIE produced about 113 g of oxygen. That’s enough to keep an astronaut breathing for about 4 hours.
It worked even better than expected, making up to 12 g of oxygen per hour. After running successfully for 2 years, MOXIE completed its final test in September 2023. It brings us one step closer to sending humans to Mars in the future. In any case, back to the discovery of ancient shorelines on Mars. This finding might help us see the red planet with new eyes. Water might have been flowing across its surface for tens of millions of years, carving out lakes, rivers, and even a vast ocean. What else have we misunderstood? Did Martian dinos stroll across the vast green valleys of the planet? Or were those bizarre marine creatures, the likes of which we can’t even imagine? We don’t know yet, but one thing is very likely. Mars had an era of warmth, water, and maybe life.
Imagine a world where the red barren landscape of Mars is transformed into a lush and verdant garden. A world where water flows freely, carving canyons, and creating lakes and oceans. Can we achieve such a world by pouring the Earth’s water onto the surface of Mars? And don’t rush to say no. Let’s explore this possibility. All right. Let’s say we could magically transport all of the water on Earth to Mars. This super-sized game of water pong would be crazy in both engineering and logistics. So, how do we even do that? First of all, we’re talking about millions and millions of gallons of water, which is no small feat. We would need some really big tanks to get all this water off the Earth. We would also have to figure out how to launch it all into space.
This would require some serious rocket technology, as well as a lot of fuel. We could probably create an entire fleet of spacecraft specifically designed for the task. Just imagine that. A fleet of giant water tankers packed with tons of carefully harvested water blasting off from Earth’s surface and hurtling through space at unimaginable speeds. Wouldn’t that be a cool sight? Now, another way, probably a better one, would be to launch a large number of smaller missions over time, each carrying a smaller amount of water until enough of it has been transported to Mars. So, let’s say we managed to do all that. What happens next? After we get to Mars, we’d need to distribute this water all across the planet. We could use a network underground pipes or some special drones to transport the water to different locations.
This is just some basic things, and as you can see, we already need a lot of planning and resources. Moreover, a crazy operation like this would require a massive coordinated effort from scientists, engineers, and space agencies all over the world. And let’s not forget about the costs. No wonder that scientists don’t really consider it a viable plan. But, the scale of this operation isn’t the only problem. Hypothetically, let’s say that we figured all that out and poured the Earth’s water on Mars. Now what? Well, believe it or not, it would be almost completely useless. Our main challenge will be the atmosphere and current climate of Mars. Mars is a dry desert with an atmosphere that’s only about 1% as thick as Earth’s. This means that any water poured onto the surface would quickly evaporate.
It would be pretty hard to create a stable environment when the entire lake can go poof in a matter of seconds. And if the water doesn’t evaporate, then, on the contrary, it will turn into ice. Mars’s surface temperature is well below freezing. Thin atmosphere only makes things worse. Another challenge is that Mars has a very weak magnetic field, which means it has little protection from the solar wind. Solar wind is a stream of charged particles that are constantly flowing out from the Sun. These winds are pretty dangerous. They can strip away any water that’s put on the Mars surface. Also, the solar radiation on Mars is much stronger than on Earth. This would make it even more difficult to maintain any liquid water there. And finally, don’t forget that we also need to purify this water to remove all the bacteria before drinking it.
But let’s not give up. If we stay super optimistic, we can still try to solve these problems. Basically, we need to find a way to maintain liquid water in one place for a long time and make sure that it doesn’t freeze or evaporate. So, how do we do it? There are a few ways we can go about it. Number one, insulation. We could wrap all the water containers in insulation materials, like foam for example, or some reflective materials that can help to keep the water from freezing. Number two, heating. We could use various heaters and devices to keep the temperatures above freezing, even thermal blankets. Although this would require a lot of energy and would be a difficult task. Number three, underground reservoirs. We could dig a large hole and cover it with a transparent material to allow sunlight to pass through.
This would help keep the water warm and insulated. Number four, salinity. Adding a small amount of salt or other dissolved minerals to water can lower its freezing point. Although we’ll need much more salt for things like lakes and this method isn’t the most efficient. And finally, number five, building a greenhouse. We could build a greenhouse or some other structure that can trap heat and create a more Earth-like environment. This option is probably the best one. After all, a greenhouse would also help us to grow various plants or other organisms. Yay, life! All right, great. Let’s say we’ve discovered some way to store water on Mars and keep it there in a liquid lukewarm state. What now? What impact would this have on Mars? Actually, this would be great.
If we were to pour all this water on Mars, it could have drastically changed the climate of this cold red desert. First of all, we could create a so-called greenhouse effect. It’s when gases in a planet’s atmosphere trap heat, causing the planet’s temperature to rise. And yeah, this is pretty bad for Earth, but for Mars, whose temperatures jump between 70 and -200° Fahrenheit, it would be awesome. This could cause the atmosphere to thicken and lead to the melting of the polar ice caps. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Mars would begin to gradually turn from a lonely desert into Earth 2. 0. It also means that the planet’s atmosphere will change. For example, the weather patterns. Clouds could form on Mars. Rains would begin to fall.
And rains, as we know, transfer water from one region to another, which would mean they could water plants if they appeared on Mars. But all of this is pure speculation. We can’t be completely sure what kind of impact pouring water on the Martian surface would have on the planet’s climate. Perhaps, to create this greenhouse effect, we would need much more water than what we can transport. But if despite all these challenges, we had succeeded with our mission and made Mars much warmer and moist, could life have been finally born there? Um unfortunately, that would still be pretty unlikely. Yes, water is very important for creating life, but that’s not all we need. The composition of the Martian soil isn’t very conducive to supporting life.
The soil is mostly made of minerals called regolith, which are composed mainly of dust, sand, and other materials that aren’t very good for plants. Theoretically, we could terraform Mars. Terraforming is a gradual, slow change of the planet so that it becomes suitable for our life. But this would be a very complex, long, and costly process. Oh, and by the way, what would happen to our Earth after all that? We took quite a lot of water, didn’t we? From Earth’s perspective, transporting water to Mars would require an enormous amount of resources, including energy and different materials. And the amount of water we’d have to spend would be staggering. The loss of such a large amount of water from Earth’s own reserves could have a significant impact on our planet, especially in areas where water is already scarce.
So, basically, this is a really bad idea, no matter how you look at it. Yeah, it may sound interesting, but it’s not a viable plan at all. It would require too many resources, too much money, and it wouldn’t even be worth it. That’s why scientists and space agencies don’t consider this idea seriously. Besides, there are many other more realistic and achievable goals in the field of Mars exploration. For example, we can keep studying the planet’s geology, atmosphere, and potential for past or present life. These studies would help us to find some resources that could support future human exploration. Overall, we need to answer many more questions about Mars before we even begin to consider colonizing it. So, let’s keep an eye on scientific news and updates.
Để lại một bình luận