Today when I was about to Google something, I found a new Google doodle with a red spherical structure while drinking a glass of water. I found it enthralling. I scrolled the cursor over it and found that this doodle is to commemorate the announcement of NASA concerning the evidence of water on Mars, and the possibility of some form of life on it.
Water on Mars
Water in its liquid form exists on the reddish terrains of Mars, NASA had said, on Monday making it promising for the existence of life. NASA scientists sprung to this inference by a sturdy testament of irregular flows of salty water on the planet once they identified dark stains on the Martian terrain that can reach hundreds of meters downhill in summer before they dry up in the fall as surface temperatures drop.
Earlier in 2008, NASA confirmed the existence of frozen water on this planet. While the latest interpretations from an Instrument abroad NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter support the long-time theory that briny flows down certain cliffs every dry season, according to the scientists.
Photographs from Mars orbit show the steep walls of valleys and craters, cliffs, streaked with summer solstice flows in the most active spots combine to form tricky fan-like patterns.
Michael Meyer, the chief scientist in NASA’s Mars exploration program said, “There is liquid water today on the surface of Mars. Because of this, we odd that it is at least likely to have a habitable situation today.”
From the spots of water flow, NASA and other aerospace agencies look forward to the reassuring sites to find life in some form on Mars. Howbeit, they find these spots safe with the expected supply of water for imminent human missions.
But intermittently, Mars probes have found clues that suggested the planet might still be wet. As already said, almost a decade ago, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor captured pictures, wherein it appeared to be water leaking from a ravine and oozing around the gibbers and boulders.
Later in 2011, the high-resolution camera fixed to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took pictures that depicted little creeks flowing down cave walls from the last days of spring to early autumn, which were named “recurring slope lineae” or RSL by the scientists.
At present, a new instrument has been fixed on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyze the chemistry of the shadowy RSL flows by the researchers. Lujendra Ojha, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and his associates toiled out to look at infrared light reflected from the rocky walls when the dark lines had just happened to appear and also when they had grown entirely at the end of summer using a spectrometer on the MRO.
In the journal Nature Geoscience, this team explains the discovery of infra-red signatures for hydrated salts when the dark flows were existing, but none before they had full-grown.
The hydrated salts a mix of chlorates and perchlorates — are a smoking gun for the existence of water at all four sites examined: the Palikir, Hale & Horowitz craters, and a vast canyon known as Coprates Chasma.
The flows only appear when the surface of Mars rises above -23C. The water can run in such icy situations as the salt brings down the freezing point of water, retaining its liquid far below 0C.
For more informative articles visit Icy tales.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian
