Since roaming robots began to visit and explore the Red Planet during the 1960s and 1970s, the features of the surface of Mars have puzzled scientists, as they noticed traces of channels, gorges, lake basins and a number of deltas that appear to have been formed by water. Since then, dozens of missions have been sent to Mars to explore its atmosphere, surface and climate in order to gather as much information as possible about its warmer, wetter past. In particular, the scientists wanted to know how long the water had flowed on Mars and if it was permanent or cyclical in nature.
The ultimate goal here is to see if rivers, streams, and permanent bodies of water exist long enough for life to appear. So far, missions such as Curiosity and Perseverance have collected a wealth of evidence showing how hundreds of large lake beds on Mars are distributed. But according to a new study by an international team of researchers, our current estimates of Martian surface water may be significantly underestimated. Based on an analysis of years of satellite data, the team said ancient lakes may have once been a very common feature on Mars.
The research was led by Dr. Joseph Michalsky, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and Deputy Director of the Space Research Laboratory at the University of Hong Kong. He was joined by researchers from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the Center for Habitable Planetary Systems at the University of Austin, the University of British Columbia, the Natural History Museum, Brown University and Georgetown. The title of the paper describing their findings was “Geological diversity and microbiological potential of Martian lakes” and was recently published in the journal Nature.
Lake bottoms are the main targets of roaming robots
Michalsky explained in a recent press release that current research has focused on larger bodies of water on Mars, which may neglect many smaller lakes that may have been there. 100 km² But 70% of the lakes on the planet are smaller than this size, and they are located in cold environments where glaciers have receded. It is difficult to identify small lakes on Mars by satellite remote sensing, but it is likely that there are many small lakes We suspect that at least 70% of the Martian lakes have yet to be discovered.”
Lake ponds are currently one of the main targets of robotic explorers on Mars because ancient lakes possessed all the components of microbial light – including water, nutrients, and energy sources such as light (for photosynthesis). Today, the basins of these ancient water bodies contain deposits rich in minerals and carbonates, as well as sulfates, silica and chlorides. These deposits may contain preserved evidence of ancient atmospheric and climatic conditions on Mars.
The lakes were a lot of fog
The researchers point out in the paper that most of the known Martian lakes date back to the Noahite era [Noachian Period] (about 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago) and lasted only 1,000 to 1 million years. This period is relatively short in geological terms, and represents a small part of the 400 million years of the timeline of the Noah period. This may mean that ancient Mars was also cold and dry, and that the flowing waters were occasional and short-lived. Given Mars’ low gravity and tightly textured soil, the team also hypothesized that lakes on Mars were a lot of fog, making it difficult for light to reach great depths and posing challenges to photosynthesis.
As a result, Michalski and colleagues say, the large, ancient, and ecologically diverse lakes will be a promising target for future exploration. “Not all lakes are of equal value and importance,” Michalsky emphasized. In other words, some Martian lakes may have been more attractive to microbial life than others because some lakes were large, deep, long-lived, and had a wide range of settings such as hydrothermal systems that might have been specific to the formation of The simple life.
Evidence for the existence of lakes during the recent geological period
The researchers found evidence of lakes on Mars during recent geological periods, but they left fewer traces. These include the ancient lakes of the Hesperian period (3-3.7 billion years ago) and shallow swampy lakes during the Amazonian period (less than 3 billion years ago). These features may be similar to those on Earth where similar cold conditions exist, and are likely to resemble shallow lakes found in drier regions (in the Hesperian period) and marshes that appear during the melting of the subsurface permafrost (in the Amazonian period).
Designing tools to detect microbial remnants of life outside Earth
Ecologist David Baker at the Hong Kong College of Biological Sciences summed it up by saying that isotopes of these traces on Earth may help expand the search for life on Mars by looking at more diverse environments.
“Earth is home to many environments that may be analogous to other planets,” said Becker, who is also a co-author of the paper and is well-versed in the microbial systems in planet Earth’s lakes. “Life is elsewhere here on Earth. Most of these tools are aimed at finding remnants of microbial life.”
The discovery of life on Mars will not take long
This research supports the ESA’s recently released mineral map of Mars, which showed how hydrated minerals (those that form in the presence of water) are everywhere on the surface. The research may also help provide more information for future robotic missions, which include the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover, which is scheduled to launch by 2028. China’s first landing mission, Tianwen-1, and China’s Zhurong rover landed on Mars in May 14, 2022, and is currently exploring the plains of Utopia Planitia.
Notably, this region was once the site of the ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere and likely contains mineral and chemical clues about how and when Mars transitioned from a warmer, wetter planet to what we see today. as you collect NASA’s Perseverance rover The samples are currently stored and stored until they can be retrieved in the coming years. This will be the first time samples have been returned from Mars for a comprehensive analysis that can only happen in laboratories on Earth.
These and other missions will pave the way for manned missions, which NASA and China plan to undertake by the early 2030s. These missions will land in accessible water areas, which may be a site for potential research. And if there really was life on Mars billions of years ago (or still exists today), the evidence won’t stay out of reach for much longer!
universetoday