WATER ON MARS
On june 21st of 2000 first water traces were discovered on the red planet.
Watching photographs (250 snaps, from mission " Mars Global Surveyor ", on MARS GROUND), scientists noticed former river beds, on inner slopes of craters, and in some valleys. Erosion on hundreds of meters (with mineral brought along), shows that water was liquid.
But conditions are contradictory ( température under zero and atmosphere pressure below 6 hectpascals), so water can't stay as a liquid for more than one minute.Quantity of water might have been big ( as much as "river Seine in Paris " (Ciel et Espace n° 363, august 2000). Big rocks were rolled in a few time. Water being frost in ground (as "permafrost", i.e. ice form), was warmed by climat (not volcanoes as thought for long) given faster cooling of Mars (than Earth's). Climat changes are faster because of planet inclinaison on its axis. Maybe atmospher pressure could at some time be tripled, due to volatile elements sublimation (they create gas pressure, necessary to maintain liquids). In those conditions water stay liquid for a while.
Nowadays, water is solid. Could ice be stored at different depths ? Only sismographs could give us an answer. Could a microbian life stay hidden in depth, scientists ask?.
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