Wind-blown piles of dust and nothing more, or even layers of ice? Mars Express, the European planetary probe designed to study Mars from orbit, has refocused its attention on one of the Red Planet’s most mysterious features, the Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF), to shed light on its composition. The new findings indicate the presence of a layer of water ice stretching several kilometers underground – the most water ever found in this part of the planet.
In its liquid state, this ice mass could cover Mars with a layer of water 1.5 to 2.7 meters deep, or even fill the entire Red Sea on our planet, she said ESA. How did scientists arrive at this?
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Mars probably had plenty of water in the past, but now the Earth-neighboring planet appears to be parched. But the latest data shows that there could be huge masses of ice deep in the Martian soil.
One of the biggest sources of dust
The MFF formation consists of several wind-formed grooves and is located at the transition between the plateaus and lowlands of Mars near the Martian equator. The formation is possibly the red planet’s largest source of dust and one of its most extensive sediment deposits.
A Red Sea on the Red Planet? 🔴🌊#MarsExpress has revisited one of #Mars’s most intriguing features, revealing what seems to be layers of water ice below the dusty surface. If melted, this potential water would be enough to fill Earth’s Red Sea, or cover Mars in a layer of… pic.twitter.com/o6mBQgwJk8
— ESA Science (@esascience) January 18, 2024
Already during the first exploration of the formation in 2007, scientists discovered massive sediments that extend to a depth of 2.5 kilometers. Although some data suggest that they contain ice, scientists do not rule out that they are deposits of dust, volcanic ash and other sediments.
“We must have ice here”
In a new survey of the area with the help of more recent radar images taken by the Mars Express probe, scientists found that the deposits are as thick as 3.7 kilometers in places. In addition, the material in the images was less dense than one might expect.
“Because of the depth, if the MFF is just a huge pile of dust, we would expect it to thicken under its own weight,” said Andrea Cicchetti of the National Institute of Astrophysics in Italy.
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Even when modeling with ice-free materials, the result did not correspond to the real properties of the investigated formation. “We have to have ice here,” Cicchetti is convinced.
Possible massive ice deposits near the equator would have to have formed in the early climatic epoch. They would not be possible in the current climate on Mars. According to the ESA, the surface of the planet shows numerous signs that Mars was once abundant with water.
Hidden ice could be important for future missions to Mars. They would need water and have to land right near the equator, far from the ice caps or glaciers.
“Unfortunately, the IMF deposits are covered by hundreds of meters of dust, so they will not be accessible for at least the next few decades,” noted ESA’s Colin Wilson.
But he added that every bit of ice will help give a better idea of where water once flowed on Mars and where it can be found now.
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2024-01-19 09:46:33
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