As people explored the cosmos, the thought of finding alien life became more and more intriguing. With the development of technology, it became possible to study the planets closest to the Earth. One of them was Mars - the fourth planet in the solar system, surprisingly similar to Earth, but as if outdated and already cooled down. Permafrost, an atmosphere unsuitable for biological creatures, severe dust storms - all this makes it inaccessible to life. However, recently found water on Mars gives hope to consider the planet as a second home for people in the distant future.
General information
Mars has almost half the radius of the Earth (on average 6780 km), as well as a much smaller mass (only 10.7 percent of the Earth). The movement of the planet around the Sun is carried out in an elliptical orbit. The rotation of the planet around its axis takes 24 hours and 39 minutes, about the same as on Earth. But around the Sun, Mars moves much longer - more than 686.98 days by earthly standards. Phobos and Deimos are satellites of the Red Planetsizes that are irregular in shape.
Before water was found on Mars, scientists began to think about the presence of life there. Theoretically, there could be life there long before it appeared on Earth, but something happened that destroyed the atmosphere and all life on the planet.
Research
The USSR, the USA, India and the European Space Community have been exploring the planet since 1960
Detailed information and sensational discoveries were made thanks to the spacecraft and rovers Mars, Mariner, Curiosity, Opportunity, Spirit operating there. It was the Martian probes who managed to take new photographs from the surface of the planet, examine soil samples, record the presence of fog, ice and water.
The clearest pictures of Mars were taken by Hubble, the most powerful space telescope.
The surface of the planet
The bright parts of the surface of Mars are called continents, and the darker parts are called seas.
Recent studies have shown that there is seasonality on Mars. The dimensions of the polar caps of the poles are variable, becoming smaller in summer and growing in winter. The surface of the planet is covered with gorges, huge faults, deep craters, indicating seismic and tectonic activity.
The planet has an amazingly flat landscape. The higher terrain in the Southern Hemisphere suggests that the planet experienced a major asteroid impact in the distant past.
Perhaps this is the turning pointperiod when water flows on Mars. The impact led to an increase in the magnetic field in the Southern Hemisphere due to the redistribution of the nuclear mass of Mars.
Soil survey
The soil discovered by the Curiosity rover was heated for research purposes, during which evaporating moisture was noticed. NASA then made the startling discovery that a cubic meter of soil contains about a liter of water. Imagine where water is on Mars, no one imagined that it is almost everywhere.
Some layers of soil are dry, but most areas are sufficiently moist and contain up to 4% water in the composition. Moreover, the upper layers are more humid, and below them are dry layers. It is not clear why the moisture that is under the ground on Earth is contained above on Mars.
Examination of deeper layers of soil, mined by drilling in the cave area, found compounds of carbonates and other minerals with a clay content. This suggests that liquid water on Mars was also in the form of groundwater.
Long branching depressions on the surface of the planet, photographed from satellites, may well be dried up beds of deep rivers. The permafrost turned all the water into ice, under which streams of water are supposedly hidden even now. A thick layer of ice keeps it from freezing, allowing the streams to continue to deepen river channels.
Atmosphere and radiation on the planet
An oxygen-rich atmosphere cannotbrag planet mars. Water in the form of steam is a very small part of it. The atmosphere is rarefied, so the radiation level is very high here.
Carbon dioxide is contained in the composition of the atmosphere the most - more than 95%, all this is diluted with a small amount of nitrogen and argon.
The average temperature on the planet is -50 °C, but can drop to -140 °C. Hypothetically, many years ago, the climate on Mars was wetter and warmer, and it rained.
Hypotheses and their confirmation
The possibility of the presence of liquid on Mars has long worried mankind. Even without special equipment, powerful telescopes, scientists began to put forward hypotheses about the existence of water on the planet long before the first satellite was sent into space.
Even in the 19th century, Giovanni Schiaparelli allowed himself to assert that there is water on Mars. Moreover, he argued that there are many channels on the planet artificially created by intelligent beings. He believed that when water flows on Mars, it fills man-made canals designed as irrigation systems to conserve water resources.
The discovery of liquid on the planet was a kind of confirmation of the scientist's conjecture. This is the first condition for the existence of life. The first step towards the possible settlement of the planet by people in the distant future.
The discovery of water on Mars was a real breakthrough in the study of the planet. The next big find could be real organic life.
S alt water on Mars
For the first time about the changeseasons on Mars, they started talking after the discovery of white caps at the poles, which either decreased in volume or increased.
In 2011, NASA made a sensational announcement: they discovered streams of water - perchlorates, which flowed from the slopes in the southern hemisphere of the planet along the walls of craters. Spectral images of the Mars Rreconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) left no doubt that the water was moving.
Water flows in the spring, forming water streams hundreds of meters long and about five meters wide, and disappears in winter.
On the other hand, ordinary water would immediately turn into ice under the influence of low temperatures on the surface of Mars. There is a theory that the liquid is s alty, a kind of brine based on perchloric acid, which, due to its composition, does not freeze. So far, scientists do not know for sure what kind of water it is. But if there really is s alty water on Mars, then microorganisms that love s alt, similar to those on Earth, can live in it.
Fog over the Red Planet
At sunset, fog gradually appears around the surface of the planet. This is another confirmation that liquid water exists on Mars. Fog rises over the cooled ground. It contains frozen ice particles that fall to the ground from the fog under their own weight. They managed to photograph the "Phoenix", directing a laser upwards. Some ice particles sink into the ground, thus ensuring a constant exchange between the atmosphere and the surface water.
At night, the fog gets deeper, rises higher, and more ice particles fall out of it. Its intensity and height also depend on the season.
Storms and storms on the planet
Even before the discovery of water on Mars, scientists assumed the occurrence of dust storms and storms there. The climate on the Red Planet has always been dry and cold according to the facts and previously approved theories.
The constructed model, reflecting Martian conditions about 3.5 billion years ago, showed the existence of a previously giant warm lake. The steam rising from its surface formed a cloud, from which snow flakes then fell. This leads to the conclusion that snowstorms can also be observed on the planet.
In 2015, the Opportunity rover took panoramic pictures of a huge dust devil. His fellow Spirit has repeatedly taken similar pictures before. But this time, the tornado was really incredibly large, it hid the surface of the planet.
Gusts of wind during storms carry sand, dust and reach speeds of up to one hundred meters per second.
Martian Ocean
Images taken back in the 70s prove that Mars once had an ocean that covered much of the northern hemisphere. The presence of depressions in the surface indicates the existence of large lakes and rivers.
Research with powerful radars has shown that huge glaciers are hidden deep under the soil. MRO made it possible to identify glaciers stretching hundreds of kilometers from the north pole to the equator. Water on Mars in the form of ice is located deep under the foot of the mountain formations, inside the cratersvolcanoes.
It was the system of deep channels that theoretically could form oceans in the distant past. The channels themselves most likely appeared as a result of lava flows, sand, stones and erosion of glaciers. Volcanic activity led to the production of a large amount of gases, which caused the formation of huge caves.
Drinking water on Mars
American scientists hypothesized that earlier on Mars there were huge volumes of liquid, which was gradually absorbed by the cave system. After all, the caves became naturally formed repositories, perhaps even drinking water, which, most likely, is still there.
Soil samples from the planet Mars have been found to contain minerals, including carbon, necessary to sustain human life. This suggests that there was previously drinking water on the planet. The presence of drinkable liquid indicates that Mars had conditions for the development of life similar to Earth.
On the other hand, organic trace elements could have come to the planet from space, with asteroids that often collide with its surface, as evidenced by many craters. Therefore, it is not yet possible to confidently say that water suitable for drinking has been found on Mars.
The mystery of underground caves has yet to be solved, the best scientists of the world are breaking their minds over it. But the discovery in the photo of failures, holes on the surface of Mars, into which water could once go, suggests its presence deep in the caves.
Is it possible to colonize Mars?
Research on the Red Planet continues. Surely there are many more places on Mars where water, and possibly biological life in the form of bacteria, exists. To make the search more efficient, it would be nice to send a research expedition to the planet, but this idea is still in the planning stage.
It will take a little less than a year to fly to Mars. Astronauts will be deprived of amenities, limited in movement, will not be able to wash themselves, and they will have to eat only canned food. A person cannot stay in a closed space for a long time. This threatens with insomnia, prolonged depression and other nervous disorders.
So far, man has not been in space for such a long time because of the danger of losing muscle and bone tissue under the influence of artificially created gravity. The maximum period for an astronaut to stay on board the ISS is six months.
The first colonizers will not be able to have children, the effect of radiation has a detrimental effect on the composition of sperm. Also, radiation will not allow you to be on the surface without a spacesuit, it can become the culprit in the development of diseases unknown to terrestrial science.
Although theoretically the colonization of the planet is possible, but in order to take the first steps towards achieving the goal, long-term studies of the planet are needed, the development of the latest equipment for a successful flight to it and effective ways to circumvent the destructive influence of Mars on humans.
