Last year, NASA researchers actively studied the water found on Mars, compared it with the earth, to be able to detect at least the slightest signs of the most ancient meteorites of the red planet. Scientists have suggested that approximately 87% of the entire topography of Mars was formed precisely under the influence of water flows. There is also evidence that the planet "soaked" all the water inside. All three rovers, recently landed on the surface, found minerals formed by ancient river flows.
But if the ocean still existed, then why did not the rovers on the northern plains discover anything, because this is also a lowland land? Or did the water just could not get there?
The hypothesis suggests that about a billion years ago, most of the surface of Mars was completely covered with ice. It probably originated from the effects of asteroids crashing into the planet. It was then that an event called the “Last Heavy Bombardment” occurred, when all the asteroid wrecks mutilated the insides of the solar system about 4 billion years ago. Most likely, the asteroids simply melted the ice on Mars and created the whole ocean.
The study of Timothy Parker, a scientist from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, enabled science to begin exploring the ocean on the red planet back in the 1980s. It was then, in the distant 20th century, during the Viking mission that the spacecraft managed to capture the shining black and white Mars. Of course, the resolution of the photo was very low. Then Parker wrote that he noticed some signs of the coastline in the northern plains of the planet, they were very similar to those of the earth.
A new study suggests that the Opportunity rover is exploring an area that was covered with ice billions of years ago.
Much better image was obtained in the 1990s. And then Parker discovered something strange. Approximate areas of the planet’s ocean are much higher than the lowlands. This is quite the opposite in comparison with Earth. An isostatic uprising probably occurred when the ground rises after the icebergs melt. Is it so?
A new study of Mars was focused on the Plateau of Meredian, the area where the rover has been located since 2003. Scientists have collected a lot of material associated with the evaporation of water there (sulfate deposits). By observing the planet Mars from the Bahamas, Parker came to the conclusion that such a shift is possible only with an ocean of shallow depth. Thus, one involuntarily stumbles upon the idea of evaporation of water over a wide shallow area, at which the "shedding" of sulphates is possible.
Park put forward a hypothesis: Mars initially did not have the ocean, because it is too far from the Sun, and its atmosphere is thin enough for liquids. However, he suggested the presence of a huge glacier over the entire area of the planet. Sulfates hit the surface from meteorites, melting all the ice.
“As soon as the latest heavy bombardment ended, the ocean froze again,” said Parker. Only in this case can we explain the reason for the location of the coastlines left far behind the real coast. The ice did not evaporate so quickly, slowly and gradually, in contrast to the Earth Ice Age. The scientist believes that such an ocean should have been covered with fragments of ice. On the coastlines, this would create channels that looked like hot lava channels (an explanation for the cut channels on Mars).
Parker thinks: coastlines moved across the surface due to numerous cracks inside the bark. Some parts of the Endeavor crater are damaged, marked and so on. The reason is most likely ice, but the hypothesis was not accepted by the members of the scientist’s team.
Another explanation for the liquid ocean is volcanism to one degree or another. But again, the factor influences the thickness of the atmosphere of Mars. Strong sunlight could warm the planet without any problems. But again there is but. The sun of that time warmed by 30% less than now. In other words, Parker is sure that the second theory is not viable.
The scientist presented his research at the lunar and planetary conferences in March in Texas, USA. He said that his main goal was to get a return on society, to discuss his idea, to correct, to put forward his assumptions, to compare the research of some missions with others, as was the case with the orbital NASA Expert. variably). This will help answer many previously difficult questions about the development in the past and present time of the planet Mars.
