Related: 7 solar system worlds where the weather is crazy The European Space Agency's (opens in new tab) Mars Express probe used infrared scans to help solve this riddle, revealing evidence for water ice existing in a cocktail with Martian dust at the southern pole. Therefore, the ice may be water ice, carbon dioxide ice or a combination containing both. However, carbon dioxide freezes at these temperatures, and approximately 95% of the Martian atmosphere is composed of this molecule, according to NASA. This means that huge sheets of ice cover the poles of Mars. Unlike Earth, temperatures on Mars can plummet to minus 195 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 125 degrees C), according to (opens in new tab). Like Earth, the poles of Mars are the coldest regions on the planet.
The thin atmosphere would mean evaporated liquid water would soon be lost to space, but water could persist if the cold allowed it to freeze solid, or if it was protected underground. The serendipitous finding reaffirmed for many scientists that the area was once home to a hot spring.Īny ancient riverbeds of Mars would be long gone, but water may have persisted in other forms into the modern day. And the Curiosity rover (opens in new tab) has observed small, round stones littering a suspected former riverbed in the Gale Crater.Īs well as these features, an accidental discovery by the Spirit rover revealed a layer of silica, which could have been deposited by hydrothermal springs, near a suspected former volcanic hydrothermal region in the Gusev Crater. Striking observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (opens in new tab) (MRO) and its predecessors found evidence of large rock formations that appeared to be dry riverbeds, according to NASA (opens in new tab). On a smaller scale, water picks up and carries smaller minerals as it flows, slowly polishing them over time into smooth spheroids that are deposited somewhere downstream. On a large scale, flowing water carves out riverbeds. Geologists on Earth know that the flow of water leaves a powerful impression on the landscape. (Image credit: NASA) (opens in new tab) Signs of water on Mars It is also smaller than Earth and thus supports less gravity, meaning Mars now retains a thin atmosphere.Įvidence suggests that Mars was once covered in oceans that were lost several billion years ago. Mars is a cold planet, being 1.5 times as distant from the sun as Earth, according to NASA. But today's appearance doesn't mean the world was always this way. As such, when exploring the Martian world, NASA adopted a similar strategy to Earth colonists exploring new lands and opted to "follow the water." Looking at the dry and barren surface, this strategy may appear misguided. Water is considered integral to the origin of life on Earth.
The more scientists look, the more they find evidence of water on Mars, or at least that water may once have been abundant on Mars and some think that liquid water is still there. But on - and underneath - the rock surfaces, chasms and crevices of this world there is a compelling mystery.
In stark contrast to an abundant bounty of weed life, the reality of the Red Planet is a desolate biome covered in iron-rich dust and rocks, according to NASA (opens in new tab). However when Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, cruised around the red world it revealed an endless landscape of dry, barren desert.
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