NASA's Mars InSight exploration has brought some interesting discoveries about the Red Planet.
According to the new seismic data that researchers gathered from the lander, the recent findings revealed the condition of the planet's crust and the possible reason for the absence of water in the region.
The First Finding
Mirage News reported on Thursday, Aug. 11, that scientists have recently found out small information about the planet's ice, which exists within its crust.
As per Vashan Wright, University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography's geophysicist, the team has unveiled that the crust of the Red planet appears to be "weak and porous."
This means that the foundation of structure in the land lacks support, hence not "well-cemented." To add, little to no ice was detected on the crevices of the crust.
"These findings don't preclude that there could be grains of ice or small balls of ice that are not cementing other minerals together. The question is how likely is ice to be present in that form?" Wright said.
The Second Finding
Aside from the discovery of the Martian crust and its connection to the ice, the researchers also learned more information about the water on the planet.
The scientists believed that during the early days, some water became a part of the minerals that make up the earth beneath.
As per University of California Berkeley's Michael Manga, pouring the water onto the rocks will pave the way for the formation of new minerals, per Phys.org.
In that way, the water becomes a composition of the said structure. Although the cement exists, not all rocks are cemented in place. This means that water could pass through minerals that are not cement.
Wright also said that sediments and rockets are glued together by cement so the formation will be preserved, thus kept safe against weathering and erosion.
As for this, the InSight lander has exposed a valuable finding to scientists. It's obvious that the water on Mars is scarce because the cemented sediments are lacking.
The Mars equator has a very low average temperature that is below the normal freezing level. This suggests that water could freeze in this region easily.
Martian Subsurface Could Contain Not Only Sedimentary Rock
Aside from sedimentary rocks, the researchers claim that lava flows also exist on the planet's landforms. However, there's a need to study this deeply since they should explore more about the mineral content and porosity of the subsurface.
Over the past years, scientists have been studying the traces of life on the Red planet. If they want to learn more about the history of Mars, they should investigate the behavior of its subsurface in the past and link it with the potential existence of water.
Last week, Tech Times reported that NASA's Perseverance rover had snapped a photo of a bizarre object on Mars. The mysterious string resembles a noodle-shaped pattern.
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Written by Joseph Henry
