Right now one of the biggest subjects in Mars research is understanding the history of water on the planet. Scientists know that there was abundant liquid water once on its surface, although now all the water has disappeared and the planet is dry. Today, only the remaining water on the surface of Mars is near its poles or in a deep valley in the form of water ice. To understand what happened to all water that were present billions of years ago, researchers are trying to add a geological history of the planet together.
Most researchers thought that water on Mars had evaporated about 3 billion years ago, but new research is questioning this figure. Recent data of NASA's Mars Honor Orbiter (MRO) suggests that recently there may be water on Mars 2 billion years ago, which means that we may have to confirm our understanding of the planet's history.
Researchers used data from MRO to see salt deposits, which lagged behind when water evaporated. He searched for these deposits in areas with effects caused by asteroid effects, which can be used for dating because more crater usually means old terrain. By combining information about the number of craters and information about salt deposits, they can estimate the date of evaporation of water.
“Is it surprising that after more than a decade of providing high-resolution image, stereo, and infrared data, the MRO has operated new discoveries about the nature and time of the ancient salt ponds connected to these river,” Bethany Ehlman said that Betni Ehlman said that the Deputy Inscents of the MRO said in the Deputy Principal Interest for MRO's Compact Twinance Emaging Compactrometer. statement,
The MRO is capturing the high-resolution images of the surface of Mars since coming on the planet in 2006, and it provides more data to help understand the planet.
“A part of the value of the MRO is that our approach to the planet continues to be more elaborate over time,” said the mission's deputy project scientist Leslie Tampper in JPL. “The better the planets we map with our equipment, the better we can understand its history.”
Published in research journal Forward advance,
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