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ExoMars discovers hidden water in Mars' Grand Canyon
The ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted significant amounts of water at the heart of Mars' dramatic canyon system, Valles Marineris.
The water, which is hidden beneath Mars' surface, was found by the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)'s FREND instrument, which is mapping the hydrogen – a measure of water content – in the uppermost metre of Mars' soil.
While water is known to exist on Mars, most is found in the planet's cold polar regions as ice. Water ice is not found exposed at the surface near the equator, as temperatures here are not cold enough for exposed water ice to be stable.
[...] "FREND revealed an area with an unusually large amount of hydrogen in the colossal Valles Marineris canyon system: assuming the hydrogen we see is bound into water molecules, as much as 40% of the near-surface material in this region appears to be water."
The water-rich area is about the size of the Netherlands and overlaps with the deep valleys of Candor Chaos, part of the canyon system considered promising in our hunt for water on Mars.
The evidence for unusually high hydrogen abundances in the central part of Valles Marineris on Mars
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103521004528
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114805
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 16 2021, @07:01PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @12:38AM (1 child)
lol wat?
The existence of life on another planet - potentially epoch changing event for humanity - and you want to send the B Ark. Yes! First to jack off on Mars!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @08:00AM
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday December 16 2021, @07:25PM (8 children)
Wonderful news, assuming it's actually water.
Not only are temperatures a lot more stable and mild near the equator - those steep valley walls make for great radiation shielding. After all, your habitat can feature nice big picture windows to make things feel more spacious, just so long as you don't have a line-of-sight with the sky to let radiation in.
With walls several km high as a backdrop you could have a pretty substantial view while still not revealing the sky. Much nicer than putting a man-made wall a short distance away like with some plans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 16 2021, @08:13PM (7 children)
Why would you even want windows at all?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday December 16 2021, @08:26PM (3 children)
So there would be something blue on the planet besides all the red.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday December 16 2021, @08:54PM (2 children)
The skies are blue. Pale, but blue. At least we think so - CO2 scatters blue light, so it *should* be blue (dust storms aside), and at least some of the cameras we've sent show the sky usually being pale blue
Though cameras don't necessarily see the same thing our eyes would, especially when trying to construct an image using color filters are tuned to scientifically interesting wavelengths rather than trying to simulate the frequency response of the human eye.
(Score: 3, Touché) by looorg on Thursday December 16 2021, @09:20PM (1 child)
I guess my attempt at a blue screen of death joke on Mars fell short. My bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @12:47AM
1980s called.... they want the joke back.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday December 16 2021, @08:47PM (2 children)
Maybe because otherwise it'd be fucking depressing spending your entire life in either a cramped windowless basement, or soaking up radiation while outside in a spacesuit where any relatively minor accident could cost you your life?
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 16 2021, @09:12PM
You must be new here?
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 16 2021, @09:39PM
The impending pandemic mandate.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @01:29AM (1 child)
...how do blind people know when to stop wiping?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 17 2021, @02:30AM
Duh,...when the blinds are clean.