As people explore space, more and moreintrigued the thought of finding alien life. With the development of technology, it became possible to study the planets closest to Earth. One of them was Mars - the fourth planet in the solar system, surprisingly similar to the Earth, but as if it had long been obsolete and already cooled down. The permafrost, unsuitable for biological creatures atmosphere, the strongest dust storms - all this makes it inaccessible to life. However, recently found water on Mars gives hope to see the planet as a second home for people in the distant future.
general information
Марс имеет практически в два раза меньший радиус, than the Earth (an average of 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 occurs in 24 hours and 39 minutes, something like on Earth. But around the Sun, Mars moves much longer - more than 686.98 days by terrestrial standards. Phobos and Deimos are small satellites of the Red Planet, having an irregular shape.
Before Mars found water, scientists beganthink about the existence of life there. Theoretically, there could be life long before it appeared on Earth, but something happened that destroyed the atmosphere and all life on the planet.
Study
The USSR, the USA, India and the European Space Community have been exploring the planet since 1960.
Details and sensational discoveries weremade thanks to the spacecraft and Mars rover Mars, Mariner, Curiosity, Opportunity, Spirit. It was the Martian probes that succeeded in taking new photographs from the surface of the planet, exploring soil samples, and fixing the presence of fog, ice and water.
The clearest pictures of Mars were taken by the Hubble, the most powerful space telescope.
Surface of the planet
The light areas of the surface of Mars are called continents, and the darker ones are called seas.
Recent studies have shown that on Marsseasonality is present. The dimensions of the polar caps of the poles are changeable, they become smaller in the summer, and expand in the winter. The surface of the planet is covered with gorges, huge faults, deep craters, indicating seismic and tectonic activity.
The planet has a surprisingly flat landscape.The higher relief in the southern hemisphere suggests that in the distant past, the planet experienced a significant collision with an asteroid, the strongest blow.
Perhaps this is the turning point of the period 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.
Ground test
Discovered by the Curiosity Rover Ground inresearch purposes were subjected to heating, during which noticed evaporating moisture. After which NASA came to a stunning discovery, finding that a cubic meter of soil contained about a liter of water. Representing where the water is on Mars, no one imagined that it was practically everywhere.
Some soil layers are dry, but mostplots are sufficiently wetted and contain up to 4% of water in the composition. Moreover, the upper layers are wetter, and under them are dry layers. It is not clear for what reason the moisture, which on Earth is under the ground, on Mars is kept at the top.
Investigation of deeper soil layers minedby drilling in the area of caves, found compounds of carbonates and other minerals with clay content. This suggests that liquid water on Mars was also in the form of groundwater.
Long branched grooves on the surfaceplanets photographed from satellites may well turn out to be dried up channels of deep rivers. The permafrost has turned all the water into ice, under which even now there are supposedly hidden streams of water. A thick layer of ice does not allow it to freeze, allowing the streams to continue to deepen the river channels.
Atmosphere and radiation on the planet
The atmosphere rich in oxygen cannot boast of the planet Mars. Water in the form of steam is a very small part of it. The atmosphere is rarefied, so the radiation level here is very high.
Carbon dioxide is contained in the composition of the atmosphere most of all - 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 it can drop to -140 ° C. Hypothetically many years ago, the climate on Mars was more humid and warm, it was raining.
Hypotheses and their confirmation
Возможность наличия жидкости на Марсе с давних since then agitated humanity. Even without special equipment, powerful telescopes, scientists began to put forward hypotheses about the existence of water on the planet long before sending the first satellite into space.
Back in the 19th century, Giovanni Schiaparelli allowed himselfto claim 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 the man-made canals created as irrigation systems to conserve water resources.
A kind of confirmation of the guesswork of the scientist was the detection of fluid on the planet. This is the first condition of having 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 exploration of the planet. The next important discovery may be real organic life.
Salt water on mars
For the first time, the change of seasons on Mars was started after the discovery of white caps at the poles, which then decreased in volume, then increased.
In 2011NASA made a sensational statement: water was detected - perchlorate, 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 is moving.
Water flows in the spring, forming water streams hundreds of length and about five meters wide, and disappears in winter.
С другой стороны, обычная вода сразу же would turn to ice under the influence of low temperatures on the surface of Mars. There is a theory that the liquid is salty, a peculiar 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 salt water on Mars, then microorganisms can live in it, who love salt, similar to those of the earth.
Fog over the red planet
At sunset, fog gradually appears aroundsurface of the planet. This is another confirmation that liquid water exists on Mars. The fog rises above the cooled ground. It contains frozen ice particles falling on the ground from the fog under its weight. They managed to photograph the Phoenix, directing the laser upwards. Some ice particles are immersed in the ground, thus providing a constant exchange between the atmosphere and surface water.
At night, the fog becomes deeper, rises higher, more ice particles fall out of it. The intensity and height of it also depend on the season.
Storms and storms on the planet
Еще до того как на Марсе обнаружили воду, ученые 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 theories approved earlier.
Построенная модель, отображающая марсианские 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 fell. This leads to the conclusion that snow storms can be observed on the planet.
In 2015rover Opportunity made panoramic shots of a huge dust whirlwind. 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
The shots taken back in the 70s proveMars had previously had an ocean that covered most of the Northern Hemisphere. The presence of depressions in the surface indicates the existence of large lakes and rivers.
Исследования с помощью мощных радаров показало, that there are huge glaciers hidden deep beneath the ground. The MRO revealed glaciers stretching for hundreds of kilometers from the north pole to the equator. Water on Mars in the form of ice is located deep beneath the mountains, inside the craters of volcanoes.
It is a system of deep channels theoreticallycould form in the distant past oceans. The canals themselves, most likely, appeared due to the flow of lava, sand, stones and erosion of glaciers. Volcanic activity led to the development of a large volume of gases, which was the reason for the formation of huge caves.
Drinking water on Mars
American scientists hypothesized that earlierMars had enormous volumes of fluid that the cavern system gradually absorbed. After all, the caves have become natural naturally formed repositories, perhaps even drinking water, which, most likely, is still there.
In the soil samples from the planet Mars were foundminerals, including carbon, are necessary to sustain human life. This suggests that the planet was previously drinking water. The presence of a fluid suitable for drinking indicates that Mars had conditions for the development of a life like that on earth.
On the other hand, organic trace elementscould get to the planet from space, with asteroids, which often collide with its surface, as evidenced by many craters. Therefore, confidently say that on Mars found water suitable for drinking, while it is impossible.
The riddle of the underground caves is yet to be solved,above it, the best scientists of the world break their minds. But the discovery in the photo of holes, holes on the surface of Mars, into which water could have once gone, suggests its presence deep in the caves.
Is it possible to colonize Mars?
Studies of the Red Planet continue.Surely there are many more places where on Mars water, and possibly biological life in the form of bacteria, exists. To make the search more effective, it would be nice to send a research expedition to the planet, but for now this idea is at the planning stage.
Чтобы долететь до Марса, понадобится чуть меньше of the year. Astronauts will be deprived of comfort, limited in movement, they will not be able to wash themselves, and they will have to eat only canned food. A person cannot be in a closed space for a long time. It threatens insomnia, prolonged depression and other nervous disorders.
While so long in space a person has not yetwas due to the risk of loss of muscle and bone tissue under the influence of artificially created gravity. The maximum period for an astronaut on board the ISS is half a year.
Первые колонизаторы не смогут иметь детей, the effect of radiation has a detrimental effect on the composition of sperm. Also, radiation will not allow being on the surface without a spacesuit, it may be the culprit in the development of diseases unknown to earth science.
Although theoretically colonization of the planet is possible,but in order to take the first steps towards achieving the goal, long-term explorations 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.
