News about Mars

2008/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

The planet Mars retains many secrets, but gradually some of them become clear. The latter, the new theory that explains the warming of the red planet and photographs of formations that look like ice structures.

The warming of Mars is still unresolved. Scientists, as on Earth, _{took responsibility for the} warming of the red planet. But if so, they would be deposited on the surface and carbonous minerals. On Mars, however, sulfated minerals have been found. Sulfates come from the deposition of _sulfur dioxide (SO2) on the wet surface. SO2 is _released due to the activity of volcanoes, and large accumulations of this substance may increase the temperature and thus cause water to evaporate like CO2. Therefore, scientists believe that SO2 is responsible for heating _Mars.

Scientists believed that all the ice that emerged as a result of the surface temperature of Mars evaporated -- except at the poles, that at the poles of Mars there are ancient and large ice structures. But the Mars Express mission has inspected a glacier-like ice structure away from the poles. According to the first data obtained, this glacier seems to be formed by icy water.