Secrets of the red planet. Eleven mysteries of Mars All new secrets and hypotheses about Mars

When NASA announced the discovery of signs of water on Mars, the news was overwhelming. Since then, many discoveries have been made, information about most of which immediately became public knowledge. There are currently two Martian rovers operating on the Red Planet. Three orbiters track Mars from above. In addition, two more probes are going to our space neighbor. We continue to uncover all the deepest mysteries and confirm previous ideas regarding this planet. And today we will talk about the ten most recent facts about this illusory desert world.

Impactites are rocks formed as a result of shock-explosive (impact) rock formation during the fall of meteorites. Most often, these impacts consist of stones, minerals, glass, and crystalline structures formed as a result of impact metamorphism. The most famous sources of impactites on Earth are perhaps the Alamo impact crater in the Nevada desert (USA) and Darwin Crater in Tasmania. NASA found another last year on Mars.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected impact glass deposits in several impact craters on the Red Planet at once. And a year earlier, scientist Peter Schultz showed the public a similar impact glass found in Argentina and containing parts of plants and organic molecules. This suggests that Martian impact glass may also contain traces of ancient life.

The next step for scientists will be to take samples of this impact Martian glass. Among the first candidates for testing is Hargraves Crater, one of the proposed landing sites for the new Martian rover in 2020.

Flying comets "shake" the magnetosphere of Mars

In September 2014, the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft entered Mars orbit. Just a few weeks later, the probe witnessed a rather rare phenomenon when a passing comet came close to the Red Planet.

Comet C/2013 A1, better known as Siding Spring, was discovered in 2013. Initially, scientists believed that it would fall on Mars, but the two objects missed each other at a distance of 140,000 kilometers.

Researchers were interested in the effects that could be caused by such a close approach. Since Mars has a weak magnetosphere, scientists immediately noted that with the approach of the comet, a powerful emission of ions occurred, which affected its stability. NASA compared this effect to powerful but short-lived solar storms. As the comet's magnetic strength increased as it approached, Mars' magnetic field was thrown into total chaos. She literally stirred like a reed in the wind.

Mars has a Mohawk

In 2013, the MAVEN spacecraft was sent to Mars to study its atmosphere. According to the information gathered from the probe's observations, a computer model was created that showed that the planet has quite a punk mohawk.

Mars' extravagant hairstyle actually consists of electrically charged particles blown by the solar wind from the planet's upper atmosphere. The electric field created by the approaching solar wind (as well as other solar activity) pulls these particles toward the poles.

The Agricultural Future of Mars

If we are really going to settle on Mars, then first we need to develop methods for supplying future colonists. According to scientists from Wageningen University (Netherlands), we have already found four crops that can be adapted to grow in Martian soil conditions.

These crops are tomatoes, radishes, rye and peas. Scientists drew their conclusions on the basis of an experiment on their cultivation in artificially created by NASA Martian soil. Despite the fact that such soil contains a high concentration of heavy metals (cadmium and copper), crops do not consume dangerous amounts of these substances during growth and, therefore, remain quite edible.

Four of these crops (along with six other types of food) have already been selected as a potential source of fresh food on Mars.

Mysterious dunes of Mars

Martian dunes have also been observed by rovers and orbital probes for quite a long time, but more recently, images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were obtained on Earth. Admittedly, the pictures made scientists think a lot. In February 2016, the spacecraft photographed a region covered in very bizarre dunes (as you can see by looking at the photo above), reminiscent of the dots and dashes used in Morse code.

According to the most current assumption, these dunes owe such a bizarre shape to an impact crater located not far from them, which limited the amount of sand for their formation. The dash-shaped dunes are thought to have been shaped by winds blowing from two directions, giving them such a linear shape.

However, the nature of the "dune points" is still a mystery. Usually a similar shape is obtained when something interferes with the formation of linear dunes. However, scientists are still not sure what this “something” really is, so further study of this region of Mars should lift the curtain on this mystery.

The Mystery of Martian Minerals

The region of Mars explored by the Curiosity rover in 2015 raised more questions for NASA scientists than it answered. Known as the "Martian Passage", this region is a geological contact zone where a layer of sandstone is superimposed on a layer of mudstone.

This area has an exceptionally high concentration of silicon dioxide. In some stones, it is up to 90 percent. Silicon dioxide is a chemical constituent commonly found in rocks and minerals on Earth, especially in quartz.

According to Albert Yen, one of the members of the Curiosity Mars rover team, to obtain a high concentration of silicon dioxide usually requires the presence of a process for dissolving other components or the presence of an environment in which these components can be formed. In other words, you need water. Therefore, solving the issue of obtaining silicon dioxide on Mars will help scientists better imagine what ancient Mars was like.

Scientists were even more surprised when Curiosity took samples of these stones. It turned out that they contain a mineral called tridymite. On Earth, this mineral is extremely rare, but in the "Martian Passage" it literally just lies. Everywhere. And researchers still do not understand where he came from.

white planet

There was a time when the famous Red Planet was more white than red. According to astronomers from the Southern Research Institute in Boulder (Colorado, USA), the planet “reddened” relatively recently. After experiencing an ice age much more extreme than our Earth has seen.

Scientists came to this conclusion after observing the layers of glaciers at the north pole of Mars. If we were talking about the Earth, then scientists would simply drill into our planet and get an ice sample, subsequently carefully examining each of its layers. But since we do not yet have the opportunity to do the same with Mars, astronomers used the Shallow Subsurface Radar scientific instrument installed on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for this purpose.

Thanks to this long-wavelength scanner, scientists were able to look 2 kilometers deep into the Martian ice crust and created a two-dimensional diagram that showed that the planet experienced a very violent ice age about 370,000 years ago. Moreover, scientists have found that in about 150,000 years the planet will face another complete freeze.

Underground volcanoes of Mars

Tridymite is usually found in volcanic rock, so its presence on Mars may indicate serious volcanic activity on the planet in the past. New evidence from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also indicates that Mars once had active volcanoes that erupted right under the ice.

The probe studied the Sisyphi Montes region, and scientists realized that it consists of plateaus, very similar in shape to terrestrial volcanoes, which still erupt under the ice from time to time.

When an eruption occurs, its force is so powerful that it literally breaks through the ice layer and throws huge volumes of ash into the air. As a result of such eruptions, a large number of different rocks and minerals are also formed, which are characteristic of these types of eruptions. The same was found in Sisyphi Montes.

Ancient megatsunamis of Mars

Scientists are still debating whether the Red Planet once had a northern ocean. A new study in this regard indicates that the ocean really existed, and, moreover, giant tsunamis raged in it.

Until now, the only evidence of a once ancient ocean here has been indistinct coastlines. And if you believe in the assumption of the existence of giant megatsunamis at that time, then it is quite possible to explain the reason for the blurring of these coastlines.

Alex Rodriguez, one of the scientists who came up with the idea, says that the waves of these giant tsunamis were up to 120 meters high. At the same time, they arose at least once every three million years.

Rodriguez is very interested in studying the craters located near the coastlines. As a result of the tsunami, these craters could fill with water and retain it for millions of years, making them an ideal place to look for signs of ancient life.

There was more water on Mars than in the Arctic Ocean

Although the location of the Martian ocean is still a matter of debate, scientists agree that the Red Planet once had a lot of water. NASA believes that there was enough water here to cover the entire planet and form an ocean 140 meters deep. And although, most likely, water was concentrated on Mars more locally, according to scientists, there was more of it than in the Arctic Ocean. The Martian ocean could occupy up to 19 percent of the planet's area.

Scientists make such assumptions based on observations made using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile. At the moment, the atmosphere of Mars contains two forms of water: H2O and HDO (heavy water), where the usual hydrogen molecules are replaced by deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen.

Scientists calculated the ratio of the current concentration of H2O and HDO on Mars and compared it with the ratio of the concentration of water in a 4.5 billion-year-old Martian meteorite. The results showed that Mars has lost 87 percent of its water supply.

Recently, one of the images of the Curiosity rover, which NASA published on its official website, showed a silhouette resembling the figure of a woman. Let's look at other similar cases. 1. Silhouette of a woman

The silhouette of a woman looks very believable, the "ghost" seems to be standing on a stone, demanding attention, - Hey, I'm here! 2 Martian Man

The Curiosity rover photographed the Martian rocks and in this image, a giant crab with ten legs is clearly visible. The discovery excited society and thousands of people turned to NASA with a request to return the apparatus to this rock in order to try to find this alien crustacean there. NASA ignored the request, saying it was the result of peridolia, a feature of the brain that allows people to see familiar shapes in random objects. 10. Flying balls

Hundreds of NASA scientists and engineers continue to oversee the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. High-tech chemical laboratories on wheels daily send information about the planet to Earth, to which it is planned to send the first expedition, which will include people, in a relatively short time.

At the moment, the estimated period of active operation of vehicles on the surface of Mars has long expired, but thanks to the genius of their creators, rovers continue to work for the benefit of mankind to this day, from time to time throwing scientists the most difficult riddles.

While the luminaries of science are trying to find a logical explanation for the mysteries of the fourth planet, conspiracy theorists and ufologists often use the extracted materials to announce evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Opportunity and the Jelly Donut Mystery

At that time, scientists called the effective life of the apparatus 90 sols (Martian days, which last a little longer than the earth), but the successful design of the rover and innovative technologies allow it to collect information so far. It was Opportunity who proved that in the distant past, fresh water existed on Mars, which formed river channels.

Opportunity prepares to celebrate its 11th anniversary on Mars
Photo: mars.nasa.gov

During its work on Mars, Opportunity has worn out, some of its equipment has failed, so the rover practically stands still. However, on January 8, 2014, the robot still managed to drive its engineers into a dead end, as well as that part of the Earth's population that follows the research of a neighboring planet.

In the picture sent by the device, right next to the rover, which was not there a few days ago.

A strange stone that scientists discovered in one of the images of Opportunity
Photo: space.com

While geologists and project engineers were trying to figure out the reasons for the appearance of an unknown object near Opportunity, the news had already spread across the Web, giving rise to a heated discussion of the event. Some Internet resources related to ufology immediately tried to explain the appearance of a strange stone as evidence of the presence of intelligent life on Mars, and also to convict NASA of hiding evidence.

Steve Squires (lead scientist of the Opportunity project) added fuel to the fire with his joke at one of the presentations, when he said that the discovered stone looked like a "jelly donut". This gave rise to another wave of humor on the Internet, and some managed to take the statement seriously.

After some time, NASA employees were still able to explain the reasons for the appearance of an unknown object near the rover. When the scientists managed to move the car a short distance, the cameras examined the area under it and found nearby rock, from which a small pebble fell off. This most likely happened at the moment when the Opportunity chassis was slipping in an attempt to move the device.

Photo: jpl.nasa.gov

However, scientists were not particularly disappointed, because the chemical composition of the found stone turned out to be extremely interesting for geologists and made it possible to draw several conclusions about the concentration of substances in the Martian rock under the influence of water currents.

Curiosity: 28 months on Mars

For two and a half years of work on a neighboring planet, the robot has collected a large amount of information necessary for scientists to ensure the safety of interplanetary flights for the human body, as well as living on the surface of an alien planet.

Recently, The New York Times published a video "28 Months on Mars", dedicated to the work of the rover on the Red Planet. The creators have put together a two-minute video from footage taken by Curiosity himself during his stay on Mars, starting on August 6, 2012. The last picture is dated December 3, 2014, on Sol 827 of the device's operation.

In the course of routine work on the study of the surface of Mars, Curiosity often witnesses mysterious events that baffle NASA scientists.

Strange glow in Curiosity images and the Martian theory

The first to notice this was the American ufologist Scott Waring, who hastened to post the photo on his resource. The ufologist claimed that the strange glow, in his opinion, is not a glare of the sun or a graphic artifact in the photograph, hinting opaquely that aliens are involved in the case. Here, Waring accused scientists from NASA that they could "ride" on a rover to the source of a strange glow, but they deliberately slow down research and do not try to find life on Mars.

A mysterious glow in one of the photographs of Curiosity caused a lot of controversy among astronomy lovers.
Photo: NASA

While less radical readers on the Internet joked that the Martians managed to unscrew the "spare tire" from the rover and now they are burning tires over the hill, scientists from the NASA laboratory tried to explain to the public that such artifacts in photographs are not uncommon.

Doug Ellison, who is one of the JPL employees, explained on his Twitter that the appearance of this glow in the picture is caused by cosmic rays. This theory is confirmed by the fact that the artifact is only on the image from the right lens of the Navcam system, while the left "eye" did not fix the anomaly.

Finding the first possible signs of life on Mars

The release of methane was recorded twice - in late 2013 and early 2014, at which time the concentration of gas near the rover was ten times higher than normal. If we take into account the fact that almost all microorganisms on our planet produce methane during their life, then such a discovery could become sensational and radically change the method of exploration of Mars.

Curiosity's second discovery excited scientists even more. When the robot obtained samples from the rock, which received the name Cumberland, and carried out their chemical analysis, organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen were found in the rock, the main building material of life on our planet.

The researchers were skeptical of such information, since the molecules could have been brought to the surface of Mars by Curiosity itself. It took many months to verify the data, and only now scientists have published the results and confidently stated that organic compounds are of Martian origin.

Hole in the Cumberland rock. It was from it that a rock sample with organic compounds was obtained.
Photo: NASA

Of course, hydrocarbons can exist separately from organic forms, but such a discovery gives scientists great hopes for the discovery of life outside our planet.

Despite the fact that there are still theories in the circles of conspiracy theorists, according to which none of the rovers ever reached the Red Planet, and all the pictures were supposedly taken in the Nevada desert, the crowns of the technical evolution of mankind tirelessly work on an alien planet every day. Little robots are gathering information for those earthlings who are expected to set off on the first manned mission to Mars soon.

As soon as the first telescopes were invented (16th century), scientists began to actively observe Mars. It turned out that it is completely covered with huge volcanoes and craters, has polar ice caps and atmospheric clouds.

To date, it is known that the red planet has such a specific color for a reason. Everything happens due to the fact that there is a large amount of iron oxide in the soil.

Another very unusual thing is that the day on Mars is almost the same as on Earth, only an hour longer. 95% of the atmosphere of Mars is carbon dioxide, and the pressure on Mars is 160 times less than on our planet. The entire surface of the red planet is occupied by land with numerous mountain ranges without water. However, scientists suggest in the past its presence. It is especially noteworthy that Mars is the only planet in our solar system that has the deepest canyon and the mightiest mountain.

The entire planet has a rather harsh climate, since the average temperature is -50 ° Celsius, and only in the equator region does the temperature stay within 20 ° C. According to scientists, this desert planet with sand tornadoes is directly related to the emergence of earthly civilization, and researchers really want to solve the Martian riddles.

Was there a civilization on Mars

Many scientists are of the opinion that Mars could have been habitable a few thousand years ago. It is possible that the planet had numerous water resources in the form of rivers and seas and an oxygen-rich atmosphere, and its inhabitants were much more developed than earthlings. But at some point, unforeseen events occurred. Foreign celestial bodies have entered the solar system from the depths of space. Most likely there were several. They passed through the planet Phaeton, which was close to Mars, and split it into several parts.

Fragment parts of Tiamat (as Phaeton was also called) violated the magnetic field of Mars, flying through the mantle of the planet. The solar wind destroyed the Martian atmosphere, thus killing the inhabitants below it. As a result, 3 very large craters formed on Mars on one side of the planet and three volcanic vents on the other side.

There could also have been many other fragmentation particles that nearly split Mars itself. One of them left a trail, which later became known as the Mariner Valley. It is very deep and resembles the earth's Mariana Trench. But the most interesting thing is that no one can say for sure whether the inhabitants of the planet were saved. Ufologists support this belief, and scientists do not stop finding more and more facts that confirm their hypothesis.

We are being watched by a higher mind

Despite everything, the mysteries of Mars still exist and there are many of them. For example, researchers often find footprints that indicate the existence of Martians. The Viking space observation orbiters helped a lot in this at one time.

The pictures that were taken were unique. On them you can see unusual cone-shaped objects, similar to the Egyptian pyramids, but much larger than them. There is also an object called the "face of the Sphinx", which looks directly at the Earth. It is likely that this is just a figment of the imagination, but still do not neglect these guesses.

Many more people are well aware of the “glass worms” find. For the first time this became known at the end of summer in 1999, when the American-assembled MarsGlobal space station was able to get pictures of some unknown objects. They looked like corrugated glass tubes that just lay on the surface of Mars. The photographs show that many of these pipes lie separately, but in places they intersect with each other and hide in the failures of the Martian soil.

Information from rovers

In January 2014, the Opportunity rover took a picture that clearly shows that a rock has appeared near the rover. Although, a few days ago this mysterious stone was not there. Thanks to this, the mysterious Mars has attracted special attention. While engineers and geologists were trying to find out the true cause of the appearance of the stone in the photo, Internet users were already actively discussing this news.

Websites related to UFO topics tried to give an answer, based on the hypothesis that the stone could be evidence of the presence of extraterrestrial civilizations on the red planet. Plus, there was even an attempt to convict NASA of hiding the true state of things. Particularly noteworthy was a humorous comment by Opportunity project scientist Steve Squires, who called the mysterious stone a jelly donut. Those who discussed this topic gladly picked up a wave of humor, and some even seriously began to consider his statement.

A little later, NASA employees became aware of where the foreign object in the photo came from. At that moment, when the researchers moved the rover a little to the other side, with the help of cameras they were able to examine the platform on which it stood, and saw the rock, just from which a piece of stone could fall off. This truth did not particularly disappoint scientists. On the contrary, it became very valuable for them, because thanks to the discovered stone, geologists, after conducting a chemical analysis, were able to find out about the concentration of various substances in the rock of the mysterious Mars.

Now the Curiosity rover is studying the red planet, which often sends unusual pictures that make researchers from NASA think.

Oddities and mysteries of the planet Mars

One day in April, NASA released a picture taken from the rover's camera, in which a whitish spot is clearly distinguishable, very similar to a glow of artificial origin. Scott Waring was the first ufologist to pay attention to this, and suggested that it was likely that alien civilizations sent a signal.

And he also accused NASA of delaying the disclosure of many secrets, because they could move the rover closer to a strange glow and get some information about life on the red planet. Thus, the mysteries of Mars are deliberately left unsolved. Of course, astronomy enthusiasts also took up the discussion of the white glow in the photo with great enthusiasm, which led to considerable conflicts and disputes.

Gift from outer space

In Antarctica in 1984, scientists discovered an ancient meteorite that resembles Martian soil in its composition. In addition, the remains of organic decomposition were visible on it. And this indicates only one thing: there was life and civilization on the red planet, but long before the Earth became inhabited. This is the most important Martian mystery - who exactly and when lived there.

More recently, ESA employees came to one very interesting conclusion, having received information from the spacecraft: Phobos (a satellite of Mars) is actually hollow, and unusual buildings on its entire surface are made by human hands!

Among other things, there is a hypothesis that the Martians live on the planet Nibiru, hiding from the inhabitants of the Earth so that they cannot be detected.

Thus, the mysteries of Mars are increasingly attracting scientists from all over the world. Who knows, maybe soon it will be possible to unravel all these unusual mysteries.

Ancient Chinese astronomers called Mars the "Fire Star", and curiosity about some things related to the Red Planet will burn scientists for a long time to come. Even after dozens of spacecraft were sent to Mars for research, many questions remained unanswered.

Why does Mars have two "faces"?

Scientists have been puzzled by the difference between the two sides of Mars for decades. The northern hemisphere of the planet - smooth and low - is one of the smoothest and most even places on the planets of the solar system. Potentially, it could be formed due to the water that once splashed on the Martian surface. At the same time, the southern half of Mars is uneven and all cut up by craters. It is about 4-8 kilometers higher than the northern part. Recent studies suggest that such differences between the southern and northern sides of the planet could be associated with a giant cosmic body that could have fallen to the surface of Mars a very long time ago.

What is the source of methane on Mars?

Methane, the simplest organic molecule, was first detected in the Martian atmosphere by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft back in 2003. On Earth, most of the methane is produced by living organisms, such as cattle, digesting food. Methane is thought to be stable in the Martian atmosphere for only 300 years, but who or what could have generated the gas so recently remains a mystery.

Still, there are ways to form methane without the participation of living organisms, for example, volcanic activity. Launched in 2016, the European Space Agency's new ExoMars program will study the chemistry of Mars' atmosphere so scientists can learn more about Martian methane.

Is there liquid water on Mars?

Although a large amount of evidence indicates that Mars once had liquid water, whether it exists today remains a mystery. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is very low, about 100 times less than the pressure on Earth, so liquid water is unlikely to survive on the surface of the Red Planet. However, the dark long lines that we can see on the surface of Mars hint that salty streams of water can flow over them every spring.

Were there oceans on Mars?

A large number of Martian missions have shown that Mars has many signs that water once splashed on the surface of the planet. It is very likely that there were oceans, valley networks, river deltas, and minerals that could form water.

However, modern models of the early Martian climate cannot explain how such high temperatures could exist on the planet to form liquid water, since the Sun warms the surface of the planet much weaker. Maybe some of the characteristic features of the surface could not be formed by water, but by winds or other mechanisms? However, everything points to the fact that ancient Mars was still warm, and there could be water on its surface, at least on one side of it. However, some scientists claim that ancient Mars was cold but wet, although this theory continues to be disputed.

Is there life on Mars?

The first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars - NASA's Viking 1 - was the first to try to solve the mystery of whether there is life on the Red Planet, but so far no answer has been received. Today, this question worries Mars researchers around the world. Viking was able to detect organic molecules such as methyl chloride and dichloromethane. However, later it turned out that these were terrestrial impurities that were part of the cleaning fluids during the preparation of the apparatus on Earth.

The surface of Mars is quite suitable for the appearance of life on it, as far as we know, since there are appropriate conditions here: suitable temperature, radiation, increased dryness and other factors. There are countless examples of life appearing on Earth even under even harsher conditions, such as in the far north, in the dry soils of the Antarctic Dry Valleys and in the very dry Atacama Desert in Chile.

Where there is liquid water on Earth, life is everywhere, so scientists believe that if there is water on Mars, there must certainly be life. When scientists answer the question of whether there is life on Mars, they will be able to shed light on a number of other questions that remain unanswered today, such as whether life may or may not originate in other parts of the universe.

Did life come to Earth from Mars?

Meteorites that were discovered in Antarctica arrived on our planet from Mars. They broke away from the Red Planet during its collisions with other space objects. These meteorites have structures that resemble those created by terrestrial microbes. Although many studies suggest that, most likely, these structures were obtained by chemical means, disputes in the scientific world continue. Some researchers believe that life was brought to Earth from Mars a long time ago, and it was meteorites that could have brought it here.

Can earthlings live on Mars?

To finally answer the question of whether or not there is life on Mars, a person can fly there and find out.

Back in 1969, NASA had plans to launch a mission to send a man to Mars by 1981, and establish a permanent Mars station there by 1988. However, interplanetary travel with the participation of man turned out to be not such an easy task, both from a scientific and technical point of view.

For example, significant difficulties were: providing a supply of food, water, oxygen, eliminating the harmful effects of microgravity and radiation, reducing the likelihood of fires to zero, and so on. But the most important thing is that a person must be psychologically adjusted to the fact that for many years he will be far from the Earth and from real help. It is also difficult to imagine how it is possible to organize a landing, work, life on an alien planet and return from there back to Earth.

Nevertheless, astronauts have long dreamed of such flights. For example, the volunteers agreed to live for about a year on the spacecraft. It was the longest space flight simulation ever developed, aiming to replicate in Earth conditions what a mission to Mars could be like from start to finish.

Volunteers willing to go to Mars - a great many. Perhaps someday such a flight will become a reality.