Ale also exaggerated gale crater, oblique view of Mars. The image combines elevation data from a high-resolution stereo camera on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter, image data from a reference camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and image color information from a Viking bit rebiter. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / MSSS
Field geology at the equatorial points of Mars on ancient megaflood
Floods of incredible intensity once washed by a gale crater Mars‘The equator about a billion billion years ago – a discovery showing the probability of the existence of life, according to data collected NASAThe Curiosity rover was analyzed in a joint project by scientists from Jackson State University, Cornell, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Hawaii.
The research, “Deposits from Giant Floods in the Gail Crater and Their Impact on Early Mars Climate”, was published in Nature on December 5, 2020. Scientific reports.
The raging megaflood – possibly touched by the heat of a weather effect that stored ice on the surface of Mars – formed huge stripes that are familiar story-geographic structures to scientists on Earth.
“We identified megafluids for the first time using detailed sedimatological data observed by Rover Curiosity,” said Alberto G., co-author of Visiting Astrobiologists at Arts Sci Sciences. Says Ferrin. “Deposits held back by Megafluids were not previously identified with Orbiter data.”
Like on Earth, the geological features on Mars, including water and wind work, have stabilized in time for about 4 billion years. These features represent the processes that shaped the surface of both planets in the past.
This combined, mis-colored image of Mount Sharp inside the Gail Crater on Mars shows geologists the changing planetary atmosphere. On Mars, the sky is not blue, but it was created to look like Earth, so that scientists could differentiate stratification levels. Credit: NASA / JPL
In this case, the sedimentary layers of the gale crater contain large wave-shaped features, often called “magripples” or antidotes that are about 0-feet and 440 feet apart, according to lead author Azt Hedari, a professor of physics. . At Jackson State University.
Hidari said the antidones at the bottom of Mars’ gale crater about a billion years ago are indicative of flowing megafloods, similar to the characteristics formed by melting ice on Earth about 2 million years ago.
The most probable cause of the Mars flood was the melting of ice from the heat generated by the large impact, which released carbon dioxide and methane from the planet’s stagnant reservoirs. The water vapor and release of the gas is combined for a short period of hot and humid conditions on the red exterior.
Condensation formed water vapor clouds, which probably resulted in planetary, torrential rain. The water enters the gale crater, then combines with the water coming down from Mount Sharp (in the gale crater) to produce massive floodwaters that accumulate gravel belts in the Hammoki Plains unit and ridge-and-rough rough band formations in the straightened unit.
The Curiosity Rover Science team has already established that the Gail Crater once had continuous lakes and streams in the ancient past. These long life of water are good indicators that the pit, as well as the mount sharps inside it, were able to support microbial life.
“Early Mars was a very active planet from a geological point of view,” Ferry said. “There were planetary conditions to support the presence of liquid water on Earth – and there is life on Earth, where there is water.
“So early Mars was a habitable planet,” he said. “Was he living? That’s a question that will help to answer the next rover … “
Patience, which started from Cape Canaveral on July 30, will reach Mars on February 18, 2021.
Reference: e. Heidari, J.F. Schroeder, F.J. Caleff, j. Van Beek, S.K. Rowland, T.J. Parker and A.G. By Ferrin, 5 November 2020, “Deposits from the Great Flood in the Gail Crater and Their Implications for the Early Mars Climate” Scientific reports.
DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-020-75665-7
Phaeron and Hedari are joined on paper by Jeffrey F. of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Schroeder, Fred J. Caleff, Jason Van Beek and Timothy J. Parker; And Scott K. Roland, University of Hawaii.
Data and funding were provided by NASA, Malin Space Science Systems, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the European Research Council.
