Orbiter discovers 'significant amounts of water' in Grand Canyon-like area of Mars
A researcher orbiter circling around Mars has discovered "significant amounts of water" underneath the surface of an area on the red planet similar to the Grand Canyon, according to the European Space Agency.
The orbiter, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, was launched by the European Space Agency along with the Russian Space Agency in 2016 and has been orbiting Mars ever since, with the goal of learning more about the gases and the possibility of life on the planet.
Recently, the orbiter was scanning an area of Mars called Valles Marineris, using the Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector instrument, or FREND, which can detect hydrogen on and up to 3 feet underneath Mars' soil.
The Valles Marineris is a 2,500-mile-long canyon on Mars with parts that are 4 miles deep. Not only is it 10 times longer and 4 times deeper than the Grand Canyon, but the Valles Marineris' length is nearly as long as the entire United States.
Data collected from the instrument from May 2018 to Feb. 2021 showed the middle part of the canyon contained a large amount of water, indicating some form of life could possibly be sustained. The findings were published in the solar system journal Icarus on Wednesday.
"We found a central part of Valles Marineris to be packed full of water – far more water than we expected," Alexey Malakhov, co-author of the study and part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a statement.
Water being found on Mars isn't a new discovery, as the planet's polar regions are full of water ice that is frozen. Temperatures in this region are so cold that even carbon dioxide can freeze.
However, the Valles Marineris is located near the equator of the planet, where temperatures usually aren't cold enough to have water ice. Igor Mitrofanov, lead author of the study and principal investigator of the FREND from the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the instrument allowed the team to discover things no other instrument could ever before.
(USA Today)
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