We not too long ago examined how and why the planet Venus might reply the longstanding query: Are we alone? Regardless of its harsh setting on the floor, its ambiance might be hospitable for all times as we all know it. Right here, we’ll study the planet Mars, aka the Purple Planet and the fourth planet in our photo voltaic system, which has been marveling sky watchers from historic occasions to the current day.
When it comes to area exploration, no planetary physique has been visited extra occasions than Mars, with NASA’s Mariner 4 turning into the primary spacecraft to picture the Purple Planet in 1965. Immediately, there are 3 rovers and 1 lander at present exploring Mars, together with over a dozen orbiters instructing us one thing new about this mysterious world every single day. However what makes Mars so fascinating to review?
“Mars fascinates me in some ways,” mentioned Dr. Antonio Paris, who’s the Chief Analysis Scientist with The Middle for Planetary Science, and writer of Mars: Your Private 3D Journey to the Purple Planet. “From science fiction to science, the Purple Planet can function a lifelong analysis curiosity to unravel the mysteries of the Photo voltaic System, reminiscent of how did life on Earth start and can our planet meet the identical destiny as Mars?”
Immediately, Mars is each a chilly and dry world, with common floor temperatures starting from -140 levels to 21 levels Celsius (-220 levels to 70 levels Fahrenheit), and never a drop liquid water on the floor. This lack of water is defined by the shortage of atmospheric stress, which is a paltry one p.c of Earth’s. Very like Venus, this doesn’t bode properly for all times as we all know it. So, what makes Mars so intriguing for astrobiology and discovering life past Earth?
“Mars used to look much more like Earth,” mentioned Dr. Mackenzie Day, who’s an Assistant Professor within the Division of Earth, Planetary, and Area Sciences at UCLA. “It had liquid water flowing throughout the floor that carved river valleys and stuffed craters to kind lakes. Lakes specifically are nice locations to search out life on Earth, so Mars is an intriguing astrobiology goal as a result of it used to have so many lakes. The Mars 2020 rover, Perseverance, is at present exploring a dry paleo-lake with a delta deposit in its inside. Deltas on Earth naturally manage sand, mud, and gravel by dimension, and we all know that the very best place to search out indicators of life are within the smallest grains. Benefiting from what we learn about deltas on Earth (just like the Nile River Delta or Mississippi River Delta) will enhance the rover’s probabilities of making notably thrilling discoveries.”
Proof suggests that billions of years in the past, Mars was a a lot hotter and wetter place, and the present Mars missions are trying to determine if life as soon as existed on the floor, and even simply beneath it. Whereas we’ve discovered a ton of science in regards to the Purple Planet in simply the previous few many years, people can’t examine Mars immediately as a result of we don’t have any samples again on Earth. However that would all change with NASA’s Mars Pattern Return mission that’s slated to launch within the late 2020s. Within the meantime, NASA’s Perseverance rover is at present making ready samples that may later be returned to Earth someday subsequent decade. However how might these returned samples assist enhance our understanding of Mars’ habitability?
“There are such a lot of questions that might be answered with an precise piece of Mars and the suite of samples that the rover is accumulating is being fastidiously chosen to get a bit of little bit of every part,” explains Dr. Day. “With precise samples we are able to use many laboratory instruments and strategies that the rover doesn’t have onboard. The samples will give us a a lot clearer image of what was taking place on historic Mars and the place or how life may need survived.”
Was Mars able to supporting life, even for even a short while? What’s going to the present missions proceed to uncover in regards to the Purple Planet, and what’s going to we be taught from the samples returned to Earth? These questions might very properly be answered in simply the following few years.
“There may be a lot hypothesis as as to if or not life existed on Mars,” mentioned Dr. Paris. “If I might make a guess, I might select lava tubes because the places to seek for life on Mars. Lots of the lava tubes on Mars stay closed off, which might function necessary places for direct remark and examine of Martian geology and geomorphology, in addition to probably uncovering any proof for the event of microbial life early within the pure historical past of Mars.”
And with this, we marvel if Mars will lastly reply, “Are we alone?”
As at all times, preserve doing science & preserve wanting up!
Featured Picture: True-color picture of the Purple Planet taken on October 10, 2014, by India’s Mars Orbiter mission from 76,000 kilometers (47,224 miles) away. (Credit score: ISRO/ISSDC/Justin Cowart) (This file is licensed underneath the Artistic Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.)
