NASA spacecraft noticed a large ravine on Mars, a feature that has formed over the past three years.
The powerful HiRISE camera installed on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft shows a channel that is located on the side of a crater in the mid-southern latitudes of the Red Planet on May 25, 2013. NASA presented this image on Wednesday March 19th. This channel is not present in the HiRISE photo taken on November 5, 2010.
Despite the fact that this structure is very similar to the riverbed, as if it happened on Earth, it is not the result of the action of liquid water, NASA officials said. "The difference between these two photos is more than one Martian year, so it is impossible to say with certainty what time of year it happened," write NASA staff studying this phenomenon.
But they also added: “Comparing two identical photos taken“ before ”and“ after ”, we noticed a general tendency: these processes take place in winter, at very low temperatures, so most likely this channel is the result of carbon dioxide, rather than water ".
However, the MRO noted other Martian features that appear to be associated with the result of the action of liquid water — dark bands known as repeating bands.
