Vast underground glaciers reported on Mars
The findings could present new avenues for the search for life or provide water to support future exploration, scientists claim.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected vast glaciers of water ice under Martian ground, researchers say. The findings could present new avenues for the search for life on Mars, they add, or provide water to support future human exploration.
Scientists analyzed data from the spacecraft’s ground-penetrating radar and report in the Nov. 21 issue of the research journal Science that buried glaciers extend for dozens of miles (kilometers) from the edges of mountains or cliffs.
A layer of rocky debris blanketing the ice may have preserved the underground glaciers as remnants from an ice sheet that covered middle latitudes during a past ice age, scientists said. This finding is similar to massive ice glaciers that have been detected under rocky coverings in Antarctica.
“Altogether, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that is not in the polar caps,” said John W. Holt of the University of Texas at Austin, lead author of the report. “Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles and up to half a mile thick.”
Scientists have puzzled over what are known as aprons—gently sloping areas containing rocky deposits at the bases of taller geographical features—since NASA’s Viking orbiters first observed them on the Martian surface in the1970s. One theory has been that the aprons are flows of rocky debris lubricated by a small amount ice.
Source: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/081120_mars
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected vast glaciers of water ice under Martian ground, researchers say. The findings could present new avenues for the search for life on Mars, they add, or provide water to support future human exploration.
Scientists analyzed data from the spacecraft’s ground-penetrating radar and report in the Nov. 21 issue of the research journal Science that buried glaciers extend for dozens of miles (kilometers) from the edges of mountains or cliffs.
A layer of rocky debris blanketing the ice may have preserved the underground glaciers as remnants from an ice sheet that covered middle latitudes during a past ice age, scientists said. This finding is similar to massive ice glaciers that have been detected under rocky coverings in Antarctica.
“Altogether, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that is not in the polar caps,” said John W. Holt of the University of Texas at Austin, lead author of the report. “Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles and up to half a mile thick.”
Scientists have puzzled over what are known as aprons—gently sloping areas containing rocky deposits at the bases of taller geographical features—since NASA’s Viking orbiters first observed them on the Martian surface in the1970s. One theory has been that the aprons are flows of rocky debris lubricated by a small amount ice.
Source: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/081120_mars
diposting oleh Cultural Advantage 2.0 @ 06.28
0 Komentar:
Posting Komentar
Berlangganan Posting Komentar [Atom]
<< Beranda