Large channels emerging from the ends of some canyons and layered sediments within suggest that the canyons might once have been filled with liquid water. The canyons merge in the central part of the Valles Marineris in a region as much as 370 miles (600 km) wide. Individual canyons within the system are as much as 60 miles (100 km) wide. Scientists think the Valles Marineris formed mostly by rifting of the crust as it got stretched. Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, about three times as tall as Mount Everest, while the Valles Marineris system of valleys - named after the Mariner 9 probe that discovered it in 1971 - reaches as deep as 6 miles (10 km) and runs east-west for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 km), about one-fifth of the distance around Mars and close to the width of Australia. The Red Planet is home to both the highest mountain and the deepest, longest valley in the solar system. This means that although this desert planet is just half the diameter of Earth, it has the same amount of dry land.
Features called recurring slope lineae may have spurts of briny water flowing on the surface, but this evidence is disputed some scientists argue the hydrogen spotted from orbit in this region may instead indicate briny salts. The planet's cold, thin atmosphere means liquid water likely cannot exist on the Martian surface for any appreciable length of time. What is the biggest unanswered question about Mars?Īlthough we know now that Mars was a habitable planet in the past, the biggest unanswered question about Mars is whether it actually hosted life. InSight offered us an unprecedented view into the interior of Mars. What have we learned about Mars over the past decade thanks to missions like Curiosity, InSight, and Perseverance?Ĭuriosity and Perseverance are studying ancient habitable environments exposed on the surface of Mars, and both missions have found evidence that the basic ingredients that life needs to exist were present at the surface or near-subsurface on Mars billions of years ago. We have confirmed the existence of past water on the Martian surface, that Mars was once a habitable planet, and that it once had a thicker atmosphere than it does today. We've learned a lot about Mars from the past 30 years of lander, rover, and orbiter missions. What do we know about Mars' past and was it ever like our planet? Mars is further from the sun and smaller than Earth, and at least as far as we know, does not appear to be habitable by life. This reddish color comes from the abundance of iron minerals and dust on the Martian surface. Mars is known as the "Red Planet" because it appears faintly reddish/orange when viewed in the night sky. David Agle, Media relations, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena.
0 kommentar(er)
