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Stunning Discoveries on Mars #1

Observations of Mars for Future Innovations

By BerkayPublished about a year ago 8 min read
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Image by PIRO from Pixabay

Observations of Mars have fascinated astronomers since the invention of the telescope in the 1600s. 

Despite the distance and the atmospheres of both planets interfering with light travel, they noticed dark and light patches that moved as the year went on, speculated that clouds, seas, or even forests might have been responsible for them. The first close-up images of Saturn's surface were captured in 1965 by NASA's Mariner 4 during a flyby, killing hopes that the planet might look like Earth. 

Photo by Daniele Colucci on Unsplash

There were 22 stills showing craters that reminded me of the scarred surface of the Moon, and the planet looked like a reddened wasteland of rubble and dust. There was barely any atmosphere and no magnetic field detected in the measurements. The geological activity of Mars appeared to have ceased billions of years ago, leading scientists to believe it was a dead planet. 

However, subsequent missions revealed that Mars has a lot more to offer than what meets the eye. This discovery deserves a closer look, so let's find out more..

Magnetic Dust Covers Mars

A Viking lander in 1976 detected high levels of iron in the soil on the Red Planet, which is responsible for its distinctive coloration. Its surface is covered with fine dust, which has been ground to the consistency of talcum powder over billions of years of wind and storm. 

Mars Pathfinder's Imager (IMP) measured the size of dust particles on the surface by measuring the difference in atmospheric brightness throughout the day. These particles have an average diameter of about three microns. Almost all of the dust on Mars is magnetic, whether it's in the air or on the ground. NASA's Spirit rover carried permanent magnets to Mars' surface in 2004, further confirming the fact. Various oxides of iron were captured from the atmosphere by two angled magnets, plus a lighter, less magnetic material, hematite, which is less magnetic and is about 40 percent lighter than magnetite. 

Among the rover's other features was its panoramic camera, which was protected by a strong magnet that prevented dust from entering and obscuring the images

A Dust Storm can Ravage the Entire Planet

Even in the painfully thin atmosphere of Mars, dust covers the surface like smoke. When Mariner 9 arrived on Mars in 1971, it encountered the biggest dust storm ever recorded. During the past decade, the Mars Global Surveyor has been tracking the weather on Mars in a polar orbit. Every spring, dust devils form as the ground warms up. A dust cloud and a rock absorb energy from the Sun, which in turn heats the gases in the atmosphere. 

In turn, they create spinning vortices as they rise through cold air. The atmosphere on Mars is so thin that there would be no wind, but fine dust would whip through the air, creating static electricity. In the evening, thunderstorms subside, but dust particles can soar hundreds of kilometers. They rarely return to the surface due to the low gravity, with some staying in the air for months at a time.

Seasons are Part of Mars' Year

As a planet moves toward the Sun, its seasons change, as do its day length and climate. During the day, the equator of a spinning planet always receives the same amount of sunlight, but during the night, the amount of daylight varies slightly from year to year. Both the Earth and Mars have seasonal variations due to their tilts on their axis, which is about 23 degrees and 25 degrees, respectively. 

There are times of the year when Mars is closer to the Sun than Earth because of its more elliptical orbit. This tilt of the north axis also causes spring and summer to last longer in the northern hemisphere, because the planet moves slower when it is farther away from the Sun. Winters in the southern hemisphere are harsh and dark for a large portion of the time, whereas the summers in the northern hemisphere are long and pleasant. Over the region, a permanent cap of dry ice forms due to the drop in temperature. 

During the winter, the atmospheric pressure on Mars drops by up to 25 percent as the gas freezes, according to NASA's Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers.

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Lakes & Streams Used to Be on Mars

Dust and desolation aren't always present on Mars. Mars Global Surveyor maps reveal streams flowing down the sides of mountains, and Mariner 9 shows valley networks across the southern hemisphere. NASA's rovers Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance have found the strongest evidence of liquid water on Mars. 

The ancient streambed that Curiosity discovered in Gale crater was revealed within just a few months of the rover's landing. In the thin atmosphere of Mars, the winds are too weak to move dunes of sand and pebbles on the ground. Among the smooth pebbles were veins of calcium sulfate, a mineral that, as an example, might be found on the beach, and in nearby rocks were veins of calcium sulfate. The rover also found clay minerals in neutral water and mudstones deposited by particles over a long period of time at the site of an ancient lake. 

Mars Opportunity discovered 8,000 kilometers from Curiosity's site on the surface of Mars, in rocks from when the surface was more similar to Earth's than to Mars' today. Clay minerals smectite, formed in pH-neutral water, are found in the area.

The Tallest Mountain In the Solar System Is Found Here

Mars was first explored by NASA's Mariner 9 orbiter, which mapped 70 percent of its surface. The orbiter had to wait several months for the dust to settle before it could view the ground below when it arrived on Jupiter in 1971. With the storm subsiding, four enormous volcanoes appeared above the sinking clouds above the highest points. On Earth, shield volcanoes have gently sloped sides, which are large and domed. 

Martian shield volcano Olympus Mons is the tallest, measuring 624 kilometers across and about 26 kilometers high. In comparison with other peaks in the Solar System, this one dwarfs them all. Compared with Mauna Kea, which extends 10,200 meters above the Pacific Ocean's floor, which is the tallest volcano on earth.

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Findings of Water

The Curiosity rover, which landed in 2012, has been hunting for signs of life ever since NASA repeatedly discovered water on Mars. It drilled into sedimentary rocks in Yellowknife Bay and found that they contain phosphorous, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon, the fundamental building blocks for life on Earth. A microorganism called a lithoautotroph can survive on our planet by consuming inorganic molecules. 

In the past few million years, Mars' climate has changed so drastically that liquid water became trapped in the soil as permafrost, which has made it impossible for anything to live on the surface today. A thin atmosphere and radiation batter the planet, which is blasted by the solar wind. The permafrost under the Antarctic ice can, however, sustain bacteria on Earth. There is hope that in the ice of Mars, traces of previous life can still be seen if there once was life on Mars.

Activity on the Volcanoes

Mars' history is bounded by the rocks that cover its surface, and scientists are piecing together the planet's history with the help of orbiters and landers. There has been a dramatic change in the surface conditions over time. During the heavy bombardment which battered the rocky planets about 4 billion years ago, the Mariner 4 spacecraft observed some of the planet's oldest regions, craters on its southern hemisphere. The rest of the planet has been altered in recent years, although this area has remained relatively unchanged. 

By looking at the calderas, one can estimate when the volcanoes last erupted by looking at the lava flows from the volcanoes buried impact craters. In an analysis of the volcanoes carried out by Mars Express, scientists estimate that volcanic activity had continued for 100 to 200 million years, and it appears that lava flows have occurred within the last few million years. Possibly, the volcanoes have gone dormant, but they are not extinct.

Image by Sergei Tokmakov from Pixabay

Weather on Mars Contains Carbon Dioxide

A Mariner 4 flyby was the first time the atmosphere was examined, and several orbiters have since performed analyses. Viking landers were first to accurately measure the thin air's composition, revealing that it is 95 percent carbon dioxide, 2.7 percent nitrogen and 1.6 percent argon. 

Only 0.15 percent of the atmosphere consists of oxygen, and 0.03 percent is composed of water vapor. Approximately 78 percent of the atmosphere on Earth is composed of nitrogen, while only 0.04 percent is carbon dioxide. 

Since 2003, Mars Express has been monitoring the atmosphere for the European Space Agency. The team has observed how carbon dioxide clouds form over the equator and how they freeze to cover the poles in winter. Scientific interest was also sparked by the orbiter's detection of methane gas along with water vapor, suggesting that life could exist beneath the surface of the planet.

Final Words for Future of Mars

As space exploration has progressed over the last 50 years, it has become more and more obvious that reaching Mars is extremely challenging. There have been several orbiters and landers lost since the first flyby in 1965. A four-out-of-six NASA missions to Mars in the 1990s failed. 

As part of the successful Mars Express mission, the Beagle 2 lander was lost by the ESA in 2003. It was not easy for those who did reach the Red Planet. We've learned a huge amount about Mars, so despite all these problems, we've learned a huge amount. Information from current and future missions is combining both successes and failures. By 2030, NASA will send humans to Mars using the information we've gathered.

Disclaimer: The original version of this story was published on another platform. Link to original version: https://medium.com/@scienceisworthexploring/stunning-discoveries-on-mars-1-1306eb0ab290

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About the Creator

Berkay

Passionate Researcher, Technical Writer & Aerospace Engineering Student.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via LinkedIn

Science be with you 😃

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