The grooves and channels that cut the sides of the pits from Mars They can get made up of water From the melting of the surface of the Red Planet and its subsoil, according to A Study led by Brown University (Rhode Island, United States).
The study and its conclusions It was published in the journal Sciences, He has focused on the valleys of Mars, such as the valleys in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, which are caused by water erosion from melting glaciers.
Mars simulation model
The team built a model that simulates the conditions needed for Mars to warm above freezing temperatures, causing ice on and below the surface of Mars to melt.
And so they discovered that when Mars is tilted on its axis up to 35 degrees, the atmosphere becomes thick enough to cause short bouts of thawing of ice in places where there are gullies.
They then compared their model data to periods in Mars’ history when canyons in the planet’s Terra Sirenum region are thought to have expanded rapidly downhill from high points, a phenomenon that cannot be explained without The presence of water sometimes.
“We know that early in Mars’ history there was running water on the surface, as well as valleys and lakes,” says Jim Head, a Brown geologist.
“About 3 billion years ago, all that liquid water was lost, and Mars became what we call an extremely dry desert or polar desert. Here we show that then and in the recent past, when the axis of Mars tilted 35 degrees, it got hot enough to melt snow and ice, and recreate liquid water until temperatures drop and it freezes again.”
Periods of intermittent melting of snow
The study sheds light on how these gullies form, the height at which they begin to erode, the strength of erosion, and how far they extend down the slope of the excavation.
According to previous theories, the valleys of Mars were formed from frost carbon dioxide evaporating from the ground, causing rocks and debris to slide down the slopes.
The height of the valleys made many scientists believe that meltwater from glaciers must be involved, but proving this has been difficult because temperatures often hover around minus 70 degrees.
The results of the new study indicate that the formation of the groove was due to periods of snowmelt and frost evaporation of carbon dioxide at other times of the year.
In addition, according to the researchers, this phenomenon is likely to have been repeated sporadically over the past few million years, and the most recent was about 630,000 years ago.
They say that if there were ice in the canyons in the regions they studied when Mars’ axis was tilted about 35 degrees, conditions would have been right for the ice to melt because temperatures rose above zero degrees Celsius (273 degrees Celsius). kelvin).
The return of topical spaces to liquid water?
The work raises again the fundamental question of whether life could exist on Mars, that is, as it is known on Earth, life is associated with the presence of liquid water, and over time, Mars will tilt again by 35 degrees, according to the researchers, allowing areas The spot of liquid water flows back.
The presence of meltwater on Mars in the relatively recent past would have facilitated the evolution of organisms, so the research also offers an exciting new perspective on the possibility of life on Mars.
If we go back to the dry valleys of Antarctica, life remains in a kind of stasis when liquid water is not available. It is not inconceivable that something similar could happen on Mars as well.
“Could there be a bridge, if you will, between the warm, wet Mars of early times and the Mars we see today in terms of liquid water?” Head says. “Everyone is always looking for environments that might be conducive not only to the formation of life, but to its maintenance and continuation.”
“Any microorganisms that may have evolved on early Mars would be in places where they could have been resting in ice and then also resting or thriving in liquid water.”
For this reason, the authors stress the importance of studying these valleys in future exploration missions to Mars.
FIWA (EFE, Brown University, Science alert)
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