NASA hinted this weekend that its team of scientists has solved a major mystery surrounding Mars. Today, the space agency announced that Mars does in fact have seasonal rivers of flowing water, increasing the odds that the planet can sustain some forms of life. The evidence, published in Nature Geoscience, suggests this water activity is still in existence and not a remnant from the past history of the planet.
The scientists were looking at recurring slope lineae that appear and increase during the warm season, where temperatures can reach as high as 300 Kelvin. These slope lineae appear as long dark streaks, some as long as a football field, on the Martian landscape. Scientists long have speculated the lineae were formed by water, but there was no evidence to support this claim until now.
Using an imaging spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), scientists studying these slope lineae found evidence that suggest the presence of hydrated salts where the slope lineae are at their largest. This correlation suggests flowing water is responsible for their creation and expansion. According to this model, water flows from the canyons and crater walls during the warmer summer months, likely a shallow subsurface flow of briny water that deposits hydrated salts and stains the area. Scientists are not sure where the water originates, but it may rise up from underground sources or condense from the atmosphere like a rain.
Liquid is key to life on Mars and increases the odds that the planet may contain some form of life. Running water also may play an important role in the future colonization of the planet.
“It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.