Is there life on Mars? If nothing else there seems to be water, thanks to the discovery of ESA and Roscosmos in the Grand Canyon known as Valles Marineris
For half a century it has been impossible to remove the question mark from the question posed by David Bowie (and not only him): is there life on Mars? A certain answer does not exist, but some interesting insights have come from a research that has seen as protagonists the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos. On the red planet there is a site that lies at the center of a large system of valleys, a kind of Grand Canyon to understand. It is here (the place is called Candor Chaos) that have been detected very high levels of hydrogen, an area rich in water, more than could be expected.
How did you come to such a conclusion? The Grand Canyon that could again rewrite the history of Mars is known as Valles Marineris: it has a length of 4 thousand kilometers, while it is 200 km wide and another 7 deep. It is difficult not to notice it on the planet, so much so that its extension reaches up to 25% of the total circumference. According to Alexey Malakhov of ESA, in the central part of the valley there is a lot of water. However, it is worth pointing out that the instruments used by the agencies could have revealed the element in different forms, because much of it is normally retained by the main Martian minerals. The conditional is therefore a must.
The merits of the TGO probe
The enthusiasm for such a novelty on Mars is inevitable, especially after what Perseverance revealed, but experts have tried to put a brake on easy conclusions. In particular, Hakan Svedhem, a former ESA scientist, explained how the step taken is fundamental, but more observations will be needed to understand what is the exact shape of the water detected. The Martian “reservoir” is something established, it does not seem too deep and the goal is to explore it in a short time. The merit of the discovery of the last days is due to the probe Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) that is part of the ExoMars program. A few more details help to better understand what happened.
Future Martian missions
The water reserves in this Martian site could be similar in size to those of the Netherlands: they are located under the surface dust and this means that they could be exploited without problems by future missions with humans as protagonists. The exploration of Mars will not be able therefore to do without Valles Marineris, the impression is that the surprises are not finished here. Other merits should be ascribed to Frend, the telescope that is on board TGO and that measures the hydrogen content through the neutron flux of the surface.
The latest conclusions were not arrived at suddenly, since the observations lasted from 2018 until last February. There is no shortage of speculation about future discoveries. It is thought that the water of Mars is in the form of ice, but there is no shortage of those who advocate for an element related to other soil minerals from the chemical point of view. ESA and Roscosmos can rightly gloat, their discovery confirms the validity of the joint EU-Russia program and the fact that the water detection was unexpected has increased the general astonishment. In the next months we have to expect new updates on the story, waiting for the human missions to become reality.
Simone Ricci