California: recently the spacecraft of the US space agency ‘NASA’ sent evidence of having water on Mars. After this, scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) investigated this. This investigation revealed that, 200 million years ago, water used to flow on the surface of Mars. Salt Minerals on Mars, which came with this water, are still present in the way of its flow.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has also sent a picture of the minerals present in the path of water flow on the surface of Mars. Scientists believe that millions of years ago there were rivers and ponds on Mars.
Scientists at Caltech Institute said that the presence of water on Mars raises the possibility of microbial life. As the atmosphere of Mars became thinner, the water there evaporated away. Because of this Mars turned into a desert. Now NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is trying to understand the atmosphere of Mars.
Earlier it is believed that water from Mars must have ended 300 million years ago. But now it is known that no, water on the surface of Mars ended 200 million years ago. To reveal this, 2 scientists from Caltech analyzed the data of the last 15 years from MRO. This shows that the presence of water on the surface of Mars was from 200 to 250 million years ago. This shows a difference of about a billion years compared to previous estimates.
These streaks of salt have been seen on the surface of Mars for the first time. Along with this, it has also been revealed that there are minerals on Mars. But, now the question is, for how many days the microorganisms would have lived on Mars.
This study has been done by scientist Elaine Lisk. She is completing her Ph.D. at Caltech, Pasadena. He is assisted by Professor Bethany Allman. Both of them have relied on data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) mounted on the MRO. Which showed that the impact craters located in the southern hemisphere of Mars are highlands filled with chloride salt and clay.
Let us tell you that the pits made on the surface of Mars help to find out the age. In this way, the age of the area can be estimated by counting the craters. The MRO has two cameras. Both are used for different purposes. The first Context Camera only takes wide-angle pictures in black and white. This explained the presence of chloride.
After detecting the presence of chloride, a High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) color camera was deployed in the area. So that HiRISE investigated more closely were the white streaks were visible by the context camera. Elaine Lisk and Elman reported that the amount of chloride in the bottom of the craters present on the surface of Mars is very high.
Allman said MRO’s cameras sent a variety of images over a decade. High-resolution, stereo, infrared data, etc. With the help of this camera, it has been found that there were rivers and ponds on the surface of Mars. NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter was the first to discover salt minerals on Mars.
