Liquid Water on Mars is Big News
Water on Mars? It’s an old story from the Red Planet, and the facts are that landers have frequently found water in the form of ice just below the surface.
But NASA has just announced new results based on high-resolution imagery from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite showing that liquid water also occasionally flows on the surface.
This conclusion is based on spectroscopic analysis of dark, seasonal streaks on the sides of craters and other features known as “recurrent slope lineae,” which look like long fingers that appear and lengthen during the martian summers. For years, there’s been argument about what is causing the lineae: Is it really water, or could it be something else – even dry material slowly tumbling down the slopes?The argument is apparently over. The new results come down heavily in favor of water – highly salty, yes, but liquid water.
This conclusion is based on spectroscopic analysis of dark, seasonal streaks on the sides of craters and other features known as “recurrent slope lineae,” which look like long fingers that appear and lengthen during the martian summers. For years, there’s been argument about what is causing the lineae: Is it really water, or could it be something else – even dry material slowly tumbling down the slopes?The argument is apparently over. The new results come down heavily in favor of water – highly salty, yes, but liquid water.
These dark, narrow, 100-meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Horowitz crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. The source of the water is still unclear, but a favored explanation is that it’s seeping out of underground aquifers – reservoirs of water hulking in the crust of Mars.
That has obvious, and encouraging implications for any future efforts to send humans to the Red Planet. A simple drilling rig might be all that’s necessary to get to supplies of precious water, not just for drinking but also for rocket fuel.
But another important consequence of this discovery is its effect on how we search for evidence of martian life.
Rather than continuing to methodically learn more about the history of the planet in the hope of knowing where to look for remnants of ancient life, this suggests that simply getting a probe to the site of the lineae might offer the chance of finding biology, not from 3 or 4 billion years ago, but still extant microbes in the hidden underground reservoirs of the Red Planet.
Structure of the Lead:
Who: NASA, Mars
Who: NASA, Mars
When: September 28th, 2015
What: NASA comfirmed there is liquid water on Mars.
What: NASA comfirmed there is liquid water on Mars.
Why: By analyzing the data send back from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite.
Where: on Mars.
How: Not given.
Keywords：
1. resolution (n.) 解析度
2. spectroscopic analysis 光譜分析
3. crater (n.) (星球上的) 環形山
4. lineae (n.) 橫溝
5. martian (adj.) 火星的
6. corroborating (v.) 證實；確定
7. hypothesis (n.) 假設；猜想
8. aquifer 蓄水層
9. reservoir (n.) 儲藏
10. hulk (v.) 緩慢地移動
11. crust (n.) 地殼；堅硬外殼
12. remnant (n.) 殘餘；遺跡
13. microbe (n.) 微生物；細菌
*hydrated (adj.) 含水的
*Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
火星偵查軌道器
2. spectroscopic analysis 光譜分析
3. crater (n.) (星球上的) 環形山
4. lineae (n.) 橫溝
5. martian (adj.) 火星的
6. corroborating (v.) 證實；確定
7. hypothesis (n.) 假設；猜想
8. aquifer 蓄水層
9. reservoir (n.) 儲藏
10. hulk (v.) 緩慢地移動
11. crust (n.) 地殼；堅硬外殼
12. remnant (n.) 殘餘；遺跡
13. microbe (n.) 微生物；細菌
*hydrated (adj.) 含水的
*Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
火星偵查軌道器
Mars, the closest planet to the Earth, is a planet packed with carbon-dioxide. With weak atmospheres in Mars, it is not suitable for human to live there no matter whether there has liquid water or not. Hope they will make a significant breakthrough in the future. For me, listening to Bruno Mars's songs is better than researching Mars.
回覆刪除Liquid water found on the Mars is really a great step to our science research. I think maybe we will live on the Mars someday. By the way, the 1st floor's comment "Listening to Bruno Mars's song is better than researching Mars." is make sense. I think Bruno Mars's song is really better than the planet Mars. LOL
回覆刪除Many people says that we will move to Mars in the future because it is the only planet that we have found which is the closest to our earth. But I think maybe before we can move to Mars, Earth was already died out and we human have already extincted.
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