Mars News and Discussions

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New clues about early atmosphere on Mars suggest a wet planet capable of supporting life
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-clues-ear ... lanet.html
by SETI Institute

New research published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters suggests that Mars was born wet, with a dense atmosphere allowing warm-to-hot oceans for millions of years. To reach this conclusion, researchers developed the first model of the evolution of the Martian atmosphere that links the high temperatures associated with Mars's formation in a molten state through to the formation of the first oceans and atmosphere.

This model shows that—as on the modern Earth—water vapor in the Martian atmosphere was concentrated in the lower atmosphere and that the upper atmosphere of Mars was "dry" because the water vapor would condense out as clouds at lower levels in the atmosphere. Molecular hydrogen (H2), by contrast, did not condense and was transported to the upper atmosphere of Mars, where it was lost to space. This conclusion—that water vapor condensed and was retained on early Mars whereas molecular hydrogen did not condense and escaped—allows the model to be linked directly to measurements made by spacecraft, specifically, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity.

"We believe we have modeled an overlooked chapter in Mars's earliest history in the time immediately after the planet formed. To explain the data, the primordial Martian atmosphere must have been very dense (more than ~1000x as dense as the modern atmosphere) and composed primarily of molecular hydrogen (H2)," said Kaveh Pahlevan, SETI Institute research scientist.

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A virtual hiking map for Jezero crater, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landing site

by Europlanet

Prospective Mars explorers can now take a hike around the landing site of NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover with an interactive map loaded with orbital imagery, terrain data as well as synthetic and real 3D panoramic views of Jezero crater and its surrounding area. The map, which can be accessed through a normal web browser, has been presented today at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada, Spain, by Sebastian Walter of the Freie Universität Berlin.

"The map is the perfect tool for planning a future visit to Mars, with an interactive interface where you can choose from different available base datasets. Some of the slopes are pretty steep, so watch out for those if you want to avoid too much oxygen consumption!" said Sebastian Walter.

"To get a real feeling of what to expect on your future Mars trip, you can click on one of the waypoint marker symbols to enter either a fullscreen 3D view or, if you have a Virtual Reality setup, to enter a fully immersive environment. You can even listen to the sounds of the rover if you stand close by, but please don't touch it—otherwise you would contaminate the probes."

https://phys.org/news/2022-09-virtual-h ... -mars.html

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New evidence for liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars
https://phys.org/news/2022-09-evidence- ... polar.html
by Sarah Collins, University of Cambridge

An international team of researchers has revealed new evidence for the possible existence of liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars.

The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, used spacecraft laser-altimeter measurements of the shape of the upper surface of the ice cap to identify subtle patterns in its height. They then showed that these patterns match computer model predictions for how a body of water beneath the ice cap would affect the surface.

Their results agree with earlier ice-penetrating radar measurements that were originally interpreted to show a potential area of liquid water beneath the ice. There has been debate over the liquid water interpretation from the radar data alone, with some studies suggesting the radar signal is not due to liquid water.

The results, reported in the journal Nature Astronomy, provide the first independent line of evidence, using data other than radar, that there is liquid water beneath Mars' south polar ice cap.

"The combination of the new topographic evidence, our computer model results, and the radar data make it much more likely that at least one area of subglacial liquid water exists on Mars today, and that Mars must still be geothermally active in order to keep the water beneath the ice cap liquid," said Professor Neil Arnold from Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute, who led the research.

Like Earth, Mars has thick water ice caps at both poles, roughly equivalent in combined volume to the Greenland Ice Sheet. Unlike Earth's ice sheets however, which are underlain by water-filled channels and even large subglacial lakes, the polar ice caps on Mars have until recently been thought to be frozen solid all the way to their beds due to the cold Martian climate.

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India’s Mars Orbiter Goes Offline, Declared End-of-Life

By Ryan Whitwam on October 5, 2022 at 9:22 am
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/340 ... nd-of-life

India became only the fourth nation in history to send a spacecraft to Mars orbit when the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) took up residence above the red planet. Now, eight years later, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reports that MOM has gone offline, and it is not expected to come back. It’s sad to see MOM go, but the mission lasted much longer than its expected six to 10-month lifespan.

MOM, also known as Mangalyaan, arrived in orbit of Mars in September 2014, less than a year after it launched aboard an ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. MOM was designed to be a technology demonstration mission, but it was still equipped to do science. It carried instruments to analyze the planet’s atmosphere, as well as a high-resolution camera. It beamed back numerous images of surface details, as well as data on the planet’s thin atmosphere and dust storms.

It’s unclear what finally caused the aging satellite to go offline, but the agency has confirmed it is not recoverable. It’s possible Mangalyaan ran through the last of its fuel — it had a limited supply of 1,880 pounds (852 kilograms) at launch. Without fuel, the spacecraft cannot control its attitude to keep the communication array pointed at Earth. There’s also some speculation that the satellite’s automated recovery system failed, causing it to change orientation and point the antenna away from Earth.

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InSight Mars lander waits out dust storm
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-insight-m ... storm.html
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's InSight mission, which is expected to end in the near future, saw a recent drop in power generated by its solar panels as a continent-size dust storm swirls over Mars' southern hemisphere. First observed on Sept. 21, 2022, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the storm is roughly 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) from InSight and initially had little impact on the lander.

The mission carefully monitors the lander's power level, which has been steadily declining as dust accumulates on its solar arrays. By Monday, Oct. 3, the storm had grown large enough and was lofting so much dust that the thickness of the dusty haze in the Martian atmosphere had increased by nearly 40% around InSight. With less sunlight reaching the lander's panels, its energy fell from 425 watt-hours per Martian day, or sol, to just 275 watt-hours per sol.

InSight's seismometer has been operating for about 24 hours every other Martian day. But the drop in solar power does not leave enough energy to completely charge the batteries every sol. At the current rate of discharge, the lander would be able to operate only for several weeks. So to conserve energy, the mission will turn off InSight's seismometer for the next two weeks.

"We were at about the bottom rung of our ladder when it comes to power. Now we're on the ground floor," said InSight's project manager, Chuck Scott of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "If we can ride this out, we can keep operating into winter—but I'd worry about the next storm that comes along."

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Early Mars Was Habitable for Microbes, at Least for a While
by Candace Cheung
October 10, 2022

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — Researchers may be able to answer David Bowie’s famous question: Is there life on Mars? A new study indicates that Mars’ surface may have been habitable for microbes over 3.7 billion years ago.

In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, scientists describe how they ran simulations combining models for the environmental conditions on early Mars and ecological processes based on microorganisms on early Earth.

On Earth, hydrogenotrophic methanogens, microbes that consumed hydrogen and produced methane, were some of the earliest forms of life, and it has long been theorized that the Noachian period on Mars would have been a likely time period when surface and atmospheric conditions would have aligned to create the ideal circumstances for life. The new study is the first to quantitively measure the viability of these simple microbial organisms.
Early Mars’ comparatively dense atmosphere was possibly warmer than it is today, and the planet’s surface is hypothesized to have been favorable to the presence of large bodies of liquid water, allowing for the possible emergence of microbial lifeforms similar to early Earth’s.

The study used a three-prong approach to model the development of these microbial lifeforms, according to Boris Sauterey, the study's lead author who works with both the University of Arizona and the Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in France. Sauterey and his colleagues had previously studied methanogens on their own planet.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/early-m ... udy-says/

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mars is a good case study in being too small to maintain an atmosphere that is able to sustain such favorable conditions for life. I think a planet that is solid and has more atmosphere is probably more likely to be favorable to life and probably in a larger habitual zone. Of course this is just a guess on my part.

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Magma on Mars likely, study finds
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-magma-mars.html
by ETH Zurich

Since 2018, when the NASA InSight Mission deployed the SEIS seismometer on the surface of Mars, seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have been listening to the seismic pings of more than 1,300 marsquakes. Again and again, the researchers registered smaller and larger marsquakes.

A detailed analysis of the quakes' location and spectral character brought a surprise. With epicenters originating in the vicinity of the Cerberus Fossae—a region consisting of a series of rifts or graben—these quakes tell a new story. A story that suggests volcanism still plays an active role in shaping the Martian surface.

Mars shows signs of life and youth

An international team of researchers, led by ETH Zurich, analyzed a cluster of more than 20 recent marsquakes that originated in the Cerberus Fossae graben system. From the seismic data, scientists concluded that the low-frequency quakes indicate a potentially warm source that could be explained by present day molten lava, i.e., magma at that depth, and volcanic activity on Mars. Specifically, they found that the quakes are located mostly in the innermost part of Cerberus Fossae.

When they compared seismic data with observational images of the same area, they also discovered darker deposits of dust not only in the dominant direction of the wind, but in multiple directions surrounding the Cerebus Fossae Mantling Unit.

"The darker shade of the dust signifies geological evidence of more recent volcanic activity—perhaps within the past 50,000 years—relatively young, in geological terms," explains Simon Staehler, the lead author of the paper, which has now been published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Staehler is a Senior Scientist working in the Seismology and Geodynamics group led by Professor Domenico Giardini at the Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich.

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Traces of ancient ocean discovered on Mars

by Adrienne Berard, Pennsylvania State University
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-ancient-ocean-mars.html

A recently released set of topography maps provides new evidence for an ancient northern ocean on Mars. The maps offer the strongest case yet that the planet once experienced sea-level rise consistent with an extended warm and wet climate, not the harsh, frozen landscape that exists today.

"What immediately comes to mind as one the most significant points here is that the existence of an ocean of this size means a higher potential for life," said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State and lead author on the study recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

"It also tells us about the ancient climate and its evolution. Based on these findings, we know there had to have been a period when it was warm enough and the atmosphere was thick enough to support this much liquid water at one time."

There has long been debate in the scientific community about whether Mars had an ocean in its low-elevation northern hemisphere, Cardenas explained. Using topography data, the research team was able to show definitive evidence of a roughly 3.5-billion-year-old shoreline with substantial sedimentary accumulation, at least 900 meters thick, that covered hundreds of thousands of square kilometers.

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NASA's InSight lander detects stunning meteoroid impact on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-nasa-insi ... oroid.html
by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA's InSight lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake last Dec. 24, but scientists learned only later the cause of that quake: a meteoroid strike estimated to be one of the biggest seen on Mars since NASA began exploring the cosmos. What's more, the meteoroid excavated boulder-size chunks of ice buried closer to the Martian equator than ever found before—a discovery with implications for NASA's future plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet.

Scientists determined the quake resulted from a meteoroid impact when they looked at before-and-after images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and spotted a new, yawning crater. Offering a rare opportunity to see how a large impact shook the ground on Mars, the event and its effects are detailed in two papers published Thursday, Oct. 27, in the journal Science.

The meteoroid is estimated to have spanned 16 to 39 feet (5 to 12 meters)—small enough that it would have burned up in Earth's atmosphere, but not in Mars' thin atmosphere, which is just 1% as dense as our planet's. The impact, in a region called Amazonis Planitia, blasted a crater roughly 492 feet (150 meters) across and 70 feet (21 meters) deep. Some of the ejecta thrown by the impact flew as far as 23 miles (37 kilometers) away.

With images and seismic data documenting the event, this is believed to be one of the largest craters ever witnessed forming any place in the solar system. Many larger craters exist on the Red Planet, but they are significantly older and predate any Mars mission.

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Largest Recent Impact Craters on Mars: Orbital Imaging and Surface Seismic Co-investigation
October 27, 2022

Introduction:

(Science)
An insightful impact

On 24 December 2021, the seismometer for the InSight mission on Mars detected a large seismic event with a distinct signature. Posiolova et al. discovered that the event was caused by a meteor impact on the surface of Mars, which was confirmed by satellite observations of a newly formed 150-kilometer crater. The surface nature and size of the impact allowed Kim et al. to detect surface waves from the event, which have yet to be observed on Mars. These surface waves help to untangle the structure of the Martian crust, which has various amounts of volcanic and sedimentary rock, along with subsurface ice, in different regions of the planet (see the Perspective by Yang and Chen). The characteristics of the impact itself are important because they provide a seismic fingerprint of an impact event that is different from the marsquakes observed so far. —BG

Abstract

Two >130-meter-diameter impact craters formed on Mars during the later half of 2021. These are the two largest fresh impact craters discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since operations started 16 years ago. The impacts created two of the largest seismic events (magnitudes greater than 4) recorded by InSight during its 3-year mission. The combination of orbital imagery and seismic ground motion enables the investigation of subsurface and atmospheric energy partitioning of the impact process on a planet with a thin atmosphere and the first direct test of martian deep-interior seismic models with known event distances. The impact at 35°N excavated blocks of water ice, which is the lowest latitude at which ice has been directly observed on Mars.

Read more here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7704

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Scientists unveil further proof of salty water on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-scientist ... -mars.html
by University of Southern Queensland

It may be known as a rocky, red planet but evidence is mounting that salty water exists at the base of polar deposits on Mars.

University of Southern Queensland's Professor Graziella Caprarelli is part of an international team investigating bright reflection signals below the Martian surface, first spotted in data acquired between 2010 and 2019 by the radar sounder MARSIS on board Mars Express.

The primarily Italian team proposed that the reflections pointed to a patchwork of salty lakes, publishing their research in Science in 2018 and in Nature Astronomy in 2021. Recently a new collaboration between the Italian team and U.S.-based researchers provided new evidence further corroborating this interpretation.

The results of these studies have been recently published in the journals Nature Communications and the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

Professor Caprarelli said new laboratory experiments and simulations have ruled out alternative interpretations.

"We've explored questions such as 'is it possible that the strong radar signals could be produced by other types of materials like clays or saline ice, or by constructive interference,'" she said.

"The latest papers address the long standing question related to the temperatures at the base of the south polar cap: thus far, these were considered to be too low even for brines to be liquid."

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New Research Shows Mars's Crust is More Complex and Evolved Than Previously Thought
November 4, 2022

Introduction:

(EurekAlert) Early crust on Mars may be more complex than previously thought—and it may even be similar to our own planet’s original crust.

The Martian surface is uniformly basaltic, a product of billions of years of volcanism and flowing lava on the surface that eventually cooled. Because Mars did not undergo full-scale surface remodeling like the shifting of continents on Earth, scientists had thought Mars’ crustal history was a relatively simple tale.

But in a new study, researchers found locations in the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere with greater concentrations of silicon, a chemical element, than what would be expected in a purely basaltic setting. The silica concentration had been exposed by space rocks that slammed into Mars, excavating material that was embedded miles below the surface, and revealing a hidden past.

“There is more silica in the composition that makes the rocks not basalt, but what we call more evolved in composition,” says Valerie Payré, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iowa and the study’s corresponding author. “That tells us how the crust formed on Mars is definitely more complex than what we knew. So, it’s more about understanding that process, and especially what it means for how Earth’s crust first formed.”

Scientists believe Mars formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Exactly how the Red Planet came into being is a mystery, but there are theories. One idea is that Mars formed via a titanic collision of rocks in space that, with its intense heat, spawned an entirely liquefied state, also known as a magma ocean. The magma ocean gradually cooled, the theory goes, yielding a crust, like a layer of skin, that would be singularly basaltic.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/969797

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Mars's crust is more complex and evolved than previously thought
https://phys.org/news/2022-11-mars-crus ... ously.html
by University of Iowa

Early crust on Mars may be more complex than previously thought—and it may even be similar to our own planet's original crust.

The Martian surface is uniformly basaltic, a product of billions of years of volcanism and flowing lava on the surface that eventually cooled. Because Mars did not undergo full-scale surface remodeling like the shifting of continents on Earth, scientists had thought Mars's crustal history was a relatively simple tale.

But in a new study, researchers found locations in the Red Planet's southern hemisphere with greater concentrations of silicon, a chemical element, than what would be expected in a purely basaltic setting. The silica concentration had been exposed by space rocks that slammed into Mars, excavating material that was embedded miles below the surface, and revealing a hidden past. The study, "An evolved early crust exposed on Mars revealed through spectroscopy," was published online Nov. 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"There is more silica in the composition that makes the rocks not basalt, but what we call more evolved in composition," says Valerie Payré, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Iowa and the study's corresponding author. "That tells us how the crust formed on Mars is definitely more complex than what we knew. So, it's more about understanding that process, and especially what it means for how Earth's crust first formed."

Scientists believe Mars formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Exactly how the Red Planet came into being is a mystery, but there are theories. One idea is that Mars formed via a titanic collision of rocks in space, that with intense heat spawned an entirely liquefied state, also known as a magma ocean. The magma ocean gradually cooled, the theory goes, yielding a crust, like a layer of skin, that would be singularly basaltic.

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Discovers Possible Organic Compounds in Mars Crater Rocks
TOPICS:AstrobiologyImperial College LondonMarsMars 2020 Perseverance Rover
https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-persever ... ter-rocks/
November 25, 2022
Kodiak Butte Jezero Crater

Rock samples from the Jezero crater analyzed by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover show evidence of liquid water and signatures that could be organic compounds.

Analyses of multiple rocks found at the bottom of Jezero Crater on Mars, where the Perseverance rover landed in 2020, has revealed significant interaction between the rocks and liquid water. Evidence consistent with the presence of organic compounds has also been discoved in those rocks.

“I hope that one day these samples could be returned to Earth so that we can explore whether conditions were right for life in the early history of Mars.” — Professor Mark Sephton

Organic compounds (chemical compounds with carbon–hydrogen bonds) can be created through nonbiological processes, so the mere existence of these compounds is not direct evidence of life. To determine this conclusively, a future mission returning the samples to Earth would be needed.

Led by researchers at Caltech and carried out by an international team including Imperial College London researchers, the study was published on November 23 in the journal Science.

Professor Mark Sephton, from the Imperial College London Department of Earth Science & Engineering, is a member of the science team who took part in rover operations on Mars and considered the implications of the results. He said: “I hope that one day these samples could be returned to Earth so that we can look at the evidence of water and possible organic matter, and explore whether conditions were right for life in the early history of Mars.”
Moving water

Perseverance previously found organic compounds at Jezero’s delta. Deltas are fan-shaped geologic formations created at the intersection of a river and a lake at the edge of the crater.

Mission scientists had been particularly interested in the Jezero delta because such formations can preserve microorganisms. Deltas are created when a river transporting fine-grained sediments enters a deeper, slower-moving body of water. As the river water spreads out, it abruptly slows down, depositing the sediments it is carrying and trapping and preserving any microorganisms that may exist in the water.

However, the crater floor, where the rover landed for safety reasons before traveling to the delta, was more of a mystery. In lake beds, the researchers expected to find sedimentary rocks, because the water deposits layer after layer of sediment. However, when the rover touched down there, some researchers were surprised to find igneous rocks (cooled magma) on the crater floor with minerals in them that recorded not just igneous processes but significant contact with water.

These minerals, such as carbonates and salts, require water to circulate in the igneous rocks, carving out niches and depositing dissolved minerals in different areas like voids and cracks. In some places, the data show evidence for organics within these potentially habitable niches.
Discovered by SHERLOC

The minerals and co-located possible organic compounds were discovered using SHERLOC, or the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals instrument.

Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC is equipped with a number of tools, including a Raman spectrometer that uses a specific type of fluorescence to search for organic compounds and also see how they are distributed in a material, providing insight into how they were preserved in that location.

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Mars megatsunami may have been caused by Chicxulub-like asteroid impact
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-mars-mega ... mpact.html
by Nature Publishing Group

A Martian megatsunami may have been caused by an asteroid collision similar to the Chicxulub impact—which contributed to the mass extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs on Earth 66 million years ago—in a shallow ocean region, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.

Previous research has proposed that an asteroid or comet impact within an ocean in the Martian northern lowlands may have caused a megatsunami approximately 3.4 billion years ago. However, prior to this study the location of the resulting impact crater was unclear.

Alexis Rodriguez and colleagues analyzed maps of Mars' surface, created by combining images from previous missions to the planet, and identified an impact crater that could have caused the megatsunami. The crater—which they have named Pohl—has a diameter of 110 kilometers and is located within an area of the northern lowlands that previous studies have suggested may have been covered by an ocean, in a region around 120 meters below its proposed sea level. The authors suggest that Pohl may have formed around 3.4 billion years ago based on its position above and below rocks previously dated to this time.

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Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-giant-man ... -mars.html
by University of Arizona

On Earth, shifting tectonic plates reshuffle the planet's surface and make for a dynamic interior, so the absence of such processes on Mars led many to think of it as a dead planet, where not much happened in the past 3 billion years.

In the current issue of Nature Astronomy, scientists from the University of Arizona challenge current views of Martian geodynamic evolution with a report on the discovery of an active mantle plume pushing the surface upward and causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The finding suggests that the planet's deceptively quiet surface may hide a more tumultuous interior than previously thought.

"Our study presents multiple lines of evidence that reveal the presence of a giant active mantle plume on present-day Mars," said Adrien Broquet, a postdoctoral research associate in the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and co-author of the study with Jeff Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor of planetary science at the LPL.

Mantle plumes are large blobs of warm and buoyant rock that rise from deep inside a planet and push through its intermediate layer—the mantle—to reach the base of its crust, causing earthquakes, faulting and volcanic eruptions. The island chain of Hawaii, for example, formed as the Pacific plate slowly drifted over a mantle plume.

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Long-lived lakes reveal a history of water on Mars
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-long-live ... -mars.html
by Sarah Derouin, Eos

The northern hemisphere of Mars is divided into two broadly distinctive areas: the smooth northern lowlands and the pockmarked southern highlands. The region of Arabia Terra sits along the transition between these two regions and is thought to contain some of the planet's oldest rocks, at more than 3.7 billion years old.

Among the craters in the southern highlands, valleys and paleolakes abound, exposing sedimentary and geomorphologic evidence of liquid water. However, relatively few paleolakes have been identified in Arabia Terra.

Z. I. Dickeson and colleagues used imagery and data from NASA's Context Camera (CTX), High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), and Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) to study a roughly 22,000-square-kilometer area of Arabia Terra in detail.

From this imagery, the team created high-resolution maps and digital elevation models to study the area's geomorphology, which allowed them to identify and describe seven new paleolakes in the region. The work is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

The researchers focused on paleolake features including lake levels, drainage catchments, fans, and lake outlets. They found that the shapes of the lakes were irregular in comparison with the circular-shaped lakes found in craters in the southern highlands. There was evidence of surface water inflows that filled the lakes as well as outlet streams that drained them, forming a cascading chain of lakes.

The team also observed multiple past water levels within each of the paleolakes, indicating that the lakes persisted over long periods of time during the Noachian, rather than forming and disappearing quickly.