According to some experts, these findings marked a number of places that were once abundant on Mars.
- Years ago, scientists blocked an incredibly intense signal coming from under the ice at the south pole of Mars.
- Some scientists interpret this reflection of the radar beam as evidence of a lake with liquid water.
- New research shows that the recorded signal is actually a radar beam reflected from volcanic rocks.
- This suggests computer modeling the nature of radar signals on a completely icy planet.
The discovery of stable water on Mars would be a sensation. It will dramatically increase the expectation that he still lives on the red planet.
A few years ago, voices appeared in professional circles saying that the water on Mars was actually being held under polar ice caps in the form of pockets or lakes. Research since 2018 has claimed to have captured evidence of such a lake.
New research Published The Geophysical Research Letters, a scientific journal, challenged these bold conclusions. Ironically, in the opinion of some experts, his results marked a number of hitherto undiscovered areas where there was liquid water on Mars in the distant past.
That would be a great invention …
Liquid water will not remain on the surface of Mars at this time. There are two reasons. First, the freezing temperature. Second, the atmosphere is very thin, so the atmospheric pressure at the surface is 150 times lower than at Earth.
However, in 2018, scientists captured something strange in the polar region of South Mars. A strong radar signal came from 1,400 meters below the surface of the local glacier. He jumped on the ground with something unusually reflective.
Water was later presented as the most plausible explanation. Lots of water – like lakes beneath the ice sheets of Antarctica.
… but not so
Shortly after the publication of the sensational report, some scientists raised doubts about the “interpretation of the lake.”
Based on the calculations, the researchers argued that the ideal conditions for retaining liquid water under the polar ice caps of Mars were very unlikely.
“To keep water close to the surface in a liquid state, you need a very salty atmosphere and at the same time a strong local heat source, but none of this applies to the study area,” said Cyril Grima, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas at Austin.
At the same time, the researcher and colleagues rethinked the particular signal from a completely different angle. He wondered if the surface of other regions of Mars under imaginary ice cover would act similarly to the site of the 2018 radar reflection.
The whole of Mars is under snow
Cyril Grima and his colleagues relied on very detailed data about the surface of the Red Planet. They have been recorded for more than three years by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft’s Mars radar research instrument.
The scientist explored what the terrain of the entire planet would look like on a map if radar signals passed through a mile-thick glacier.
Scientists have compared the recently obtained image with radar data mapping the base of Mars’ polar ice caps.
Glaciers at the South Pole of Mars.
Zdroj: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin
Grima and colleagues noticed strong signals from reflected radar beams. Exactly what they saw in 2018 beneath the polar ice cap of South Mars. However, on the typical snow-covered Mars, such places are scattered throughout the planet.
In all possible cases of rock formation, they are located in areas of lava plains – plains formed by the consolidation of lava flows from volcanoes on ancient Mars.
Parallels of the Earth
Researchers point out that a similar situation can be seen on Earth to that of Mars.
“Iron-rich lava reflects radar signals after solidification, as recorded on Mars,” says Cyril Grima: The history of this world.
Although a new study dismisses indications of liquid water beneath Mars’ polar ice caps, some scientists have suggested that young Mars may have had more liquid water than previously thought.
Did they find the presence of ancient water?
According to Isaac Smith, a geophysicist at York University, clear signatures of radar data discovered by Grima and colleagues modeled on frozen Mars represent clay rocks formed by aquatic erosion. Informed Web SciTechDaily.com.
Smith outlines the findings of geologists on Earth, which he said could apply to our planet’s neighbors.
“The beauty of this study is that while it rejects the liquid water theory that currently exists at the South Pole of Mars, it also gave us specific locations where evidence of ancient lakes and rivers could be found to determine what the climate on Mars looks like, as the planet gradually dries up,” the researcher said.
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