MAVEN Looks for Clues to Mar’s Missing Atmosphere
Posted: October 17, 2010 Filed under: American Astronomical Society, astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, Dr. Bruce Jakosky, Dr. Ed Weiler, entertainment, Goddard Flight Center, International Astronomical Union, John Hopkins University, Mars, MAVEN, NASA, National Solar Observatory, Royal Astronomical Society, Russian Space Agency, scientists, the Red Planet | Tags: astronomers, astronomy, Dr. Bruce Jakosky, Mar's missing atmosphere, Mars, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, MAVEN, NASA, the Red Plane, water flowing on the Red Planet 1 Comment »
An artists conception of MAVEN in orbit around Mars
Where did Mar’s thicker atmosphere go?
This shot shows water ice clouds at the top that indicate a storm front on the Red Planet
Space scientists looking at the atmosphere of the Red Planet have a bit of a mystery on their hands as the facts would seem to indicate that Mars should have a much more prominent atmosphere. The formation of an atmosphere thick enough for liquid water to flow on the planet’s surface would have made the Red Planet a very promising place for the formation of life in our solar system. Planet scientists that have been studying Mars and the data collected by instruments they have focused on the Red Planet and are planning on journeying to the Red Planet to delve into the mystery of Mar’s atmosphere using MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission), sometime in the future. They want to see if they can find any clues as to where Mar’s atmosphere might have gone and the possibly reasons it’s no longer present on Mars. They also want to see if they can determine a timeline for the disappearance of the Red Planet’s thick atmosphere, which could give them an idea whether Mar’s had time to develop life of any form.
Planet scientists looking at the surface of Mars see features that leads them to believe that the surface of the Red Planet has been a cold and barren place for billions of years. This is hardly the environment for Earth-based life to develop, but surface features resembling water-channels of some kind and minerals scientists know will form in the presence of water have been found on the surface of Mars. These facts lead planet scientists to the possibility that Mars once had a much thicker atmosphere and was warm enough for liquid water to flow along the surface of Mars. The only problem is Mars currently has a very thin atmosphere unable to protect any liquid water that forms on the surface of Mars from the radiation of the sun and consequently any water would have been scoured from the planet’s surface, long ago. This environment would be the end-of-the-road for any known Earth-based life form, but it’s possible any Martian life forms that existed during the time when Mar’s thicker atmosphere went missing could have decided to go underground in order to survive. NASA plans on sending MAVEN out to the Red Planet to see if they can find any clues to the mystery of where Mar’s thicker atmosphere went, sometime in 2013, if NASA’s current plans stay on target.
What are the possible reasons Mar’s no longer has a much thicker atmosphere? Space scientists at this point believe that Sol could be the main culprit in the disappearance of the Red Planet’s atmosphere, that Sol’s breath, or solar wind, is the possible force responsible for Mars no longer having a much thicker atmosphere possibly capable of supporting Earth-based life. They think it’s possible the electrically charged ions and electrons in the solar wind could have slowly stripped away Mar’s thicker atmosphere in its early days, after Mars lost its global magnetic field, which would have normally shielded the thicker atmosphere of the Red Planet from the force of Sol’s solar wind, just as Earth’s global magnetic field protects our atmosphere from the solar wind. Sol’s solar wind isn’t the only possibly culprit in the disappearance of Mar’s thicker atmosphere and NASA’s planning on sending MAVEN to the Red Planet within the next two years to take a look at what remains of the upper atmosphere of Mars, the ionosphere and the way the atmosphere of the Red Planet interacts with Sol and its solar wind.
Journey Across the Surface of the Red Planet
Posted: October 7, 2010 Filed under: American Astronomical Society, astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, Earth, entertainment, Goddard Flight Center, John Hopkins University, Mars, Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, meteorites, NASA, National Solar Observatory, Oilean Ruaidh, the planets, the Red Planet, the solar system | Tags: astronomers, astronomy, Mars, Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, NASA, Oilean Ruaidh, space, space scientists, the Red Planet, the solar system Leave a comment »This little rock looks like it has an interesting story to tell!
This little meteorite is telling planetary scientists studying Mars a few things
NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been traveling across the surface of the Red Planet looking at anything that interests scientists, while making its way toward its main goal, Endeavour Crater. The latest object of study for planetary scientists playing with their toys is this meteorite NASA’s planetary scientists have affectionately named “Oilean Ruaidh”, which is also the Gaelic name of an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. NASA planetary scientists first got a glimpse of this gem on September 16, 2010, which was the 2,363rd Martian day rover has spent on the surface of the Red Planet. The picture above was actually taken on September 24, 2010, using the panoramic camera on Opportunity, four days before Opportunity would continue its journey to Endeavour Crater, by traveling a distance of about 328 ft (100 meters).
The four days that planetary scientists spent looking at “Oilean Ruaidh” using the microscopic imager and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer of Opportunity to take a closer look at the texture and composition of this little meteorite revealed that it’s a nickle-iron meteorite. The image above is presented in a color close to the true color of the meteorite and combines component images taken through three Pancam filters admitting different wavelengths.
Water On, Water Off
Posted: September 28, 2010 Filed under: astronomers, Astronomical Societies, astronomy, Brian Hynek, Cassini Orbiter, Earth, entertainment, Gaetano Di Achille, John Carter, Mars, NASA, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Nature Geoscience, Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument, Sol, Spirit Mars Rover, the planets, the Red Planet, the solar system, the Universe | Tags: astronomers, astronomy, carbonate, Mars, NASA's Spirit Mars Rover, space scientists, the solar system, water on Mars Leave a comment »
Where did all the water go? What water?
More evidence for the case for the presence of water on the Red Planet
Planetary scientists taking a second look at a Mars outcropping first examined by NASA’s Spirit Mars Rover back in 2005 think there could be additional evidence for water on large areas of Mars. In specific, planetary scientists have found high concentrations of carbonate, a mineral that scientists have previously shown to originate in wet conditions that dissolves in acid. This leads planet scientists to the conclusion that ancient oceans on Mars couldn’t be acidic and could therefore have been favorable environments for the evolution of life forms.
This is hardly news as planet scientists have noted the presence of carbonates on the surface of Mars previously, and there could be all sorts of natural ways to produce the carbonates that we humans haven’t experienced, yet. Reports indicate that scientists are finding rock outcroppings with as much as 25 percent carbonate by weight. This is a far higher percentage of carbonate than previously recorded, though, and this data could indicate the presence of vast oceans on the surface of the Red Planet in the past, according to some scientists.
One group of planet scientists in Boulder, Colorado has been studying the possibility that oceans of water once existed on the Red Planet. Gaetano Di Achille and Brian Hynek have been taking a close look at 52 martian deltas and about 40,000 river valleys on Mars, using the combined data from a series of orbiting Mars missions, conducted over years. Their studies lead them to speculate that broad and deep expanses of water once covered up to one-third of the surface of Mars, 3.5 billion years ago.
This team of astronomers concluded that at least half the deltas and river valleys they studied likely marked the boundaries of an ancient sea. The geological features in question are all at the same relative elevation, which implies they were possibly connected to martian seas or large bodies of water, according to this team of scientists.
The volume of water scientist are talking about once existing on the Red Planet is around 30 million cubic kilometers of water, about 10 times less than the volume of water contained in Earth’s oceans. This study appeared online on June 13 in Nature Geoscience.
John Carter and a team of scientists at the University of Paris, on the other hand, claim that the Red Planet certainly once had vast quantities of water, only not in the form of vast seas and oceans. This team found hydrated silicate minerals within craters on the northern lowlands of the Red Planet, a place where these minerals hadn’t previously been found. This fact, combined with previous indications of hydrated silicate minerals in Mars Southern Hemisphere, leads this team of scientists to conclude that Mars was changed on a global scale by liquid water around 4 billion years in the past. This group of astronomers used NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to look inside 91 impact craters where asteroids have exposed ancient marine material several kilometers beneath the surface of Mars. They found nine contained phyllosilicates or other hydrated silicates, minerals that scientists know form in wet environments.
The real question now is, where did all this water go? Future missions to the Red Planet will be looking for facts to help determine where all the water went or if it might still might exist on Mars, in another form. They’ll also be taking a close look at river deltas, which could be excellent regions to search for evidence of past Martian life.
