Remains of ancient lakes on Mars

2010/01/05 Kortabitarte Egiguren, Irati - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Geologia

The study of the new images collected on the red planet by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) probe has found that in some lakes of Mars liquid water was later than they thought. To reach this conclusion, researchers at Imperial College London have analyzed some of the depressions of Mars.

The researchers considered that these depressions were due to the loss of ice that occurred in the sublimation process that took place on Mars four billion years ago, a process in which ice becomes gas. However, the images obtained by the MRO probe show that these depressions are connected through various channels. And according to the researchers, this type of channels is not created, without the passing of water. That is, they are not formed because the ice becomes gas.

The most surprising thing is that all of them, hondonates and channels, emerged when Mars was supposedly a cold and dry place and had no liquid water on the surface. According to the researchers, volcanic activity, the impact of meteorites, etc., may accompany them. Therefore, researchers consider that these geological activities gave the planet a pressure to melt ice and keep liquid water on the surface.

Image: Image: ANDÉN