logo
Study casts doubt on water flows as cause of streaks on Martian slopes

Study casts doubt on water flows as cause of streaks on Martian slopes

TimesLIVE20-05-2025
"It's similar to how dry sand can flow like water when poured. But on Mars, the ultra-fine particles and low gravity enhance the fluid-like properties, creating features that might be mistaken for water flows when they're dry material in motion," Valantinas said.
The study examined about 87,000 satellite images, including those obtained between 2006 and 2020 by a camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, of slope streaks, which form suddenly and fade over years. They average roughly 600m to 775m long, sometimes branching out and going around obstacles.
The slope streaks were concentrated mostly in the northern hemisphere, particularly in three major clusters: at the plains of Elysium Planitia, the highlands of Arabia Terra and the vast Tharsis volcanic plateau including the Olympus Mons volcano, towering about three times higher than Mount Everest.
The researchers said limitations in the resolution of the satellite images mean they account for only a fraction of slope streaks. They estimated the number at up to two million.
Water is considered an essential ingredient for life. Mars billions of years ago was wetter and warmer than it is today. The question remains whether Mars has any liquid water on its surface when temperatures seasonally can edge above the freezing point.
It remains possible that small amounts of water, perhaps sourced from buried ice, subsurface aquifers or abnormally humid air, could mix with enough salt in the ground to create a flow even on the frigid Martian surface. That raises the possibility that the slope streaks, if caused by wet conditions, could be habitable niches.
"Generally, it is very difficult for liquid water to exist on the Martian surface due to the low temperature and the low atmospheric pressure. But brines, or very salty water, might potentially be able to exist for short periods of time," said planetary geomorphologist and study co-leader Valentin Bickel of the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Given the massive volume of images, the researchers employed an advanced machine-learning method, looking for correlations involving temperature patterns, atmospheric dust deposition, meteorite impacts, the nature of the terrain and other factors. The geostatistical analysis found slope streaks often appear in the dustiest regions and correlate with wind patterns, while some form near the sites of fresh impacts and quakes.
The researchers also studied shorter-lived features called recurring slope lineae, or RSL, seen primarily in the Martian southern highlands. These grow in the summer and fade the next winter. The data suggested these also were associated with dry processes such as dust devils, or whirlwinds of dust, and rockfalls.
The analysis found both types of features were not typically associated with factors indicative of a liquid or frost origin such as high surface temperature fluctuations, high humidity or specific slope orientations.
"It all comes back to habitability and the search for life," Bickel said.
"If slope streaks and RSL would be driven by liquid water or brines, they could create a niche for life. However, if they are not tied to wet processes, this allows us to focus our attention on other, more promising locations."
)
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

NASA says it will lose about 20 percent of its workforce
NASA says it will lose about 20 percent of its workforce

eNCA

time2 hours ago

  • eNCA

NASA says it will lose about 20 percent of its workforce

The US space agency NASA will lose approximately 3,900 employees under Donald Trump's sweeping effort to reduce the federal workforce — at the same time the president prioritises plans for crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. In an emailed statement, NASA said around 3,000 employees took part in the second round of its deferred resignation program, which closed late Friday. Combined with the 870 who joined the first round and regular staff departures, the agency's civil servant workforce is set to drop from more than 18,000 before Trump took office in January to roughly 14,000 -- a more than 20 percent decrease. Those leaving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the deferred resignation program will be placed on administrative leave until an agreed departure date. An agency spokesperson said the figures could shift slightly in the coming weeks. "Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organization and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars," the agency said. Earlier this year, the Trump administration's proposed NASA budget put a return to the Moon and a journey to Mars front and center, slashing science and climate programs. The White House says it wants to focus on "beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mars." China is aiming for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the US program, called Artemis, has faced repeated delays.

Martian meteorite sells for record $5.3m at Sotheby's
Martian meteorite sells for record $5.3m at Sotheby's

TimesLIVE

time18-07-2025

  • TimesLIVE

Martian meteorite sells for record $5.3m at Sotheby's

A 24.5kg Martian meteorite that is the largest known piece of Mars found on Earth has sold for $5.3m (R93.9m) at Sotheby's, setting a new auction record for a meteorite. The auction on Wednesday for the rock known as NWA 16788 sparked a 15-minute bidding war between online and phone bidders. "This is an amazing Martian meteorite that broke off of the Martian surface," said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby's vice-chairperson and global head of science and natural history, ahead of the auction. The fragment was discovered in November 2023 by a meteorite hunter in the Sahara Desert, in Niger's remote Agadez region. "The people there knew already that it was something special," said Hatton. "It wasn't until it got to the lab and pieces were tested that we realized, 'Oh my gosh, it's Martian.' And then when those results came back and we compared and saw, OK, it's not just Martian, it is the biggest piece of Mars on the planet."

Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return with US veteran from ISS
Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return with US veteran from ISS

TimesLIVE

time15-07-2025

  • TimesLIVE

Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return with US veteran from ISS

Nasa retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station (ISS), joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries' first ISS mission. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into the sea off the coast of California at about 9.30am GMT after a fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit. The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organised by Texas-based start-up Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of South African-born billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles. The mission finale, return flight was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast. Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness with infrared cameras, were expected to slow the capsule's final descent to about 24km/h moments before its splashdown off San Diego. Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 1,927°C. The astronauts' flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up. The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from Nasa in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the US space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman to command an ISS expedition. Now director of human space flight for Axiom, she had logged 675 days in space, a US record, during three previous Nasa missions and a fourth flight to space as commander of the Axiom-2 crew in 2023. Her latest mission commanding Axiom-4 will extend her record by about three more weeks. Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary. They are returning with a cargo of science samples from more than 60 microgravity experiments conducted during their 18-day visit to the ISS and due for shipment to researchers on Earth for final analysis. For India, Poland and Hungary, the launch marked the first human space flight of each country in more than 40 years and the first mission to send astronauts from their government's respective space programmes to the ISS. The participation of Shukla, an Indian air force pilot, is seen by India's space programme as a precursor of sorts to the debut crewed mission of its Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft, planned for 2027. Uznanski-Wisniewski is a Polish astronaut assigned to the European Space Agency, while Kapu is part of his country's Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) programme, though he is not the first person of Hungarian descent to board the space station. Billionaire Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian-born software designer who became a US citizen in 1982, has twice visited the ISS as a space tourist, in 2007 and 2009, hitching rides aboard Russian Soyuz capsules. But like many wealthy individuals from various countries who have paid their own way for joyrides to space, Simonyi was not flying on behalf of his homeland or any government. Dubbed 'Grace' by its crew, the newly commissioned capsule flown for Axiom-4 was launched from Nasa's Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral in Florida on June 25, becoming the fifth vehicle in SpaceX's Crew Dragon fleet. The Ax-4 team arrived at the ISS on June 26, welcomed aboard by the station's latest rotating crew of seven occupants — three US astronauts, one Japanese crewmate and three Russian cosmonauts. The two crews parted company again early on Monday when Crew Dragon Grace undocked to begin its voyage home. Axiom-4 also marks the 18th crewed space flight logged by SpaceX since 2020, when Musk's rocket company ushered in a new Nasa era by providing American astronauts their first rides to space from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme nine years earlier. For Axiom, a nine-year-old venture cofounded by Nasa's former ISS programme manager, the mission builds on its business of putting astronauts sponsored by private companies and foreign governments into low-Earth orbit. Axiom also is one of a handful of companies developing a commercial space station of its own intended to eventually replace the ISS, which Nasa expects to retire in about 2030.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store