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Some of Mars and Mesas on the northern planet of the Red Planet. Inside these eroded hills are layers of clay that consists of liquid water. | Credit: Esa/DLR/Fu Berlin
Thousands of hills and hills were found on Mars to contain layers of clay minerals, which were formed when running water interacted with rocks during a period of northern water of Mars.
“This research shows us that Mars climate Joe McNeel of the Natural History Museum in London said in the past that was very different in the distant past. statement. “The hills are rich in clay minerals, which means that liquid water should be on the surface in large quantities nearly four billion years.”
Mars It is a planet of two halves. To the south, the ancient heights are located, while the north is eroded, most of which are lower plains where a large body of water is believed once. In fact, the evidence is now overwhelming that Mars was once Warm, wetwith Riversand Lake And perhaps even Oceans That had been around for nearly four billion years.
Researchers, led by McNeil, have now found more supportive evidence of the North Sea, in the form of more than 15,000 hills and hills up to 1640 feet (500 meters) that contain clay minerals.
Related to: The value of the water in the ocean may be buried inside Mars – but can we access it?
on land For example, in the western United States – we find such hills in the form of Pots and Mesas in the desert areas, where rock formations were eroded by the winds for millions of years.
On Mars, we also find buttes and mesas. The McNeil team studied an area around the size of the UK full of thousands of these hills. They are all the remainder in the area of the highlands, which declined and eroded by hundreds of kilometers, with water and wind, in Chrysa Blancia to the north and west of the southern highlands known as Mawrist Vallis. Cris Blancia was the site of landing Nassa‘s Viking 1 The mission in 1976 is a low -land region that consists of an old effect.
Using high -resolution images and spectral composition data from Hirise and CRISM tools on NASA Mars survey orbitAnd as well European Space Agency‘s Rapid Mars and Exomars follow the orbit of the gasMcNeil team showed that Mars and Mesas are made of layers with layers, and among those layers up to 1150 feet (350 meters) of clay minerals, which are formed when liquid water soaks and interacts with rocks for millions of years.
“[This] “There must be a lot of water on the surface for a long time. This may have come from the old northern ocean on Mars, but this is still a controversial idea,” McKinel said.
Directly below the layers of clay There are layers of old rocks that do not contain clay; Above clay layers are smaller layers of rocks that do not also contain any clay. It seems clear that the clay layers are from a specific wet period in the history of Mars during the Noachian era of the Red Planet (stretching time Between 4.2 and 3.7 billion years), a geological period characterized by the presence of liquid water on Mars.
An artist’s impression of Rosalind Franklin Rover on Mars. | Credit: Esa/mlabspace
Related stories:
– The water on Mars may be more recently than scientists believed, as China Rover suggests
– Life on Mars: Exploration and Evidence
McKenil said: “The hills maintain a near -complete date of water in this region within the ongoing rocky protests that can be reached.” The next European Space Agency Rosalind Franklin Rover You will explore nearby and can allow us to respond to whether Mars has an environment, and if that happens, whether life can be there. “
The area with geological bearer hills is associated with Axa PlaanumAnd it is the place where Rosalind Franklin will go when it is launched in 2028 in search of the past Life on Mars. It seems now that Rosalind Franklin is already heading to a site that gives him the best opportunity to find evidence of previous red organisms.
The results were published on January 20 in the magazine Geological nature.
