Mars, the fourth planet out from the sun, is well known for its look of a rusty red
color.
The atmosphere of the Red Planet is extremely thin, making it a chilly desert world.
But the dusty, lifeless planet is anything but uninteresting.
Phenomenal dust storms can cover the entire planet, temperatures can drop so low that
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere condenses directly into snow or frost, and mars quakes
occur on a daily basis.
As a result, it's no surprise that this red planet continues to fascinate scientists and
is one of the solar system's most examined bodies, according to NASA Science.
Have you seen the strange image of an "alien doorway" that quickly went viral on social
media?
On May 7, 2022, NASA's Curiosity rover returned it as it went through Mars' Mount Sharp region.
It was, of course, nothing of such; it was simply a crevice that resulted from natural
erosion; but, in the wake of that photograph, both of NASA's rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance,
have been sending back some images that are both fascinating and unexpected.
Today in this video, we bring you some of the most bizarre things discovered on Mars.
Icy meltwater Mars once had rivers and ponds that provided
a potential environment for microbial life billions of years ago.
That water evaporated as the planet's atmosphere thinned over time, leaving the frozen desert
world studied by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) today.
It is widely assumed that Mars' water vanished around 3 billion years ago.
However, two scientists reviewing data collected by MRO on Mars over the previous 15 years
have discovered evidence that drastically shortens that timeline: Their research reveals
evidence of liquid water on Mars as recently as 2 billion to 2.5 billion years ago, implying
that water flowed there for a billion years longer than previously thought.
The findings focus on the chloride salt deposits left behind as icy meltwater drained across
the landscape.
While the structure of certain valley networks suggested that water may have flowed recently
on Mars, the salt deposits are the first mineral evidence indicating the presence of liquid
water.
The discovery raises fresh questions about how long microbial life on Mars could have
sustained, assuming it ever existed at all.
Ellen Leask, the study's principal author, conducted much of the research as part of
her doctoral studies at Caltech in Pasadena.
She and Caltech professor Bethany Ehlmann utilized data from the MRO instrument called
the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) to map chloride salts across
Mars' southern hemisphere's clay-rich highlands, which are dotted with impact craters.
One key to date the salts was the presence of craters: the less craters a terrain has,
the younger it is.
Scientists can estimate the age of a surface area by measuring the number of craters on
it.
MRO has two cameras that are ideal for this task.
The Context Camera's black-and-white wide-angle lens assists scientists in mapping the spread
of the chlorides.
Scientists use the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) color camera to
zoom in and see features as small as a Mars rover from space.
Leask and Ehlmann discovered several of the salts in depressions on gently sloping volcanic
plains by using both cameras to build digital elevation maps.
The scientists also discovered twisting, dry channels nearby - old streams that formerly
fed surface runoff (from ice or permafrost melting) into these ponds.
Crater counts and indications of salts on top of volcanic topography helped them to
date the deposits.
Did you know that the Red Planet also has the highest mountain and the deepest, longest
valley in the solar system?
Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, roughly three times the height of Mount
Everest, while the Valles Marineris system of valleys — named after the Mariner 9 probe
that discovered it in 1971 — reaches as deep as 6 miles (10 kilometers) and runs east-west
for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers), roughly one-fifth the distance around Mars
and close to the width of Australia.
Scientists believe that the Valles Marineris was formed mostly by rifting of the crust
as it stretched.
Individual canyons in the system can be up to 60 miles (100 kilometers) wide.
The canyons meet in the center of the Valles Marineris, spanning up to 370 miles (600 km).
Large channels emerging from the ends of several canyons, as well as stratified sediments within,
indicate that the canyons were previously filled with liquid water.
Dark Green Spots Is the appearance of dark spots near Mars'
south pole in early spring an indication of life on the Red Planet?
According to a panel of scientists, no one knows for certain.
András Horváth, Tibor Gánti, and Eörs Szathmáry from Budapest's Planetarium and
Institute for Advanced Study proposed that the spots could be colonies of Martian bacteria
that wax and wane with the seasons.
The specks emerge on crater floor dunes in the south and north polar regions.
The Hungarian crew thoroughly studied the southern areas.
"They appear in late winter and by summer they have disappeared.
They appear first at the margins of the dune fields and rarely appear on the ridges of
dunes," Szathmary informed the group.
Their location (which is independent of land elevation) and shape (which is circular on
level surfaces but extended on slopes) appear to contradict a physical explanation alone,
according to Hungarian scientists who have proposed a biological explanation instead.
They propose that the spots are colonies of photosynthetic Martian microbes that overwinter
beneath the ice cap.
Light penetrates the ice as the Sun returns to the pole in early spring, causing microorganisms
to photosynthesize and heat their immediate environment.
The layer of ice that covers them has caused a pocket of water to form around them.
This water would typically evaporate away immediately in the thin atmosphere of Mars,
but the ice has prevented this from happening.
As this ice layer thins, the microorganisms show through grey.
When it has completely melted, they rapidly desiccate and turn black.
This explains why many dark dune spots have a black center surrounded by a grey aureole.
The Tubes of Mars In recent years, a number of strange features
have been found on the surface of Mars!
The "glass tubes" identified by the team of "Enterprise Mission," non-NASA researchers
who reviewed over 20,000 MGS photographs made available to the public, are without a doubt
one of the most astonishing and eye-catching photos from the Mars Global Surveyor.
Seemingly "non-natural" tubular structures located in the Martian deserts, give the appearance
of being "translucent," quite cylindrical, and supported by somewhat regular intervals
by "ribs."
These images acquired from Mars orbit show what appear to be miles and miles of ribbed
'tubes' on the red planet's surface.
The diameter of these tubes is estimated to be close to 600 feet.
Some have attempted to explain these structures by geological processes.
Others feel they are naturally biological.
Nonetheless, some people believe the tubes were built.
The team working on the Curiosity rover has a hunch that the tube structures are themselves
crystals, or that crystals formed a mold in the rock that was later filled in by sedimentary
material.
Curiosity has already discovered abundant evidence of groundwater and an old lake-and-stream
system on the crater floor and in the lower foothills of the mountain.
The mission team thinks that Mount Sharp's rocks provide evidence of Mars' change from
a reasonably warm and wet world to the frigid and dry planet it is today.
Some researchers speculate that these "non-natural" tubes could be water pipes or an ecologically
sustainable underground rapid transit system.
If their theories turn out to be accurate, this would provide conclusive evidence that
there is intelligent life on Mars!
Perhaps the Martians are an underground civilization!
Blueberries and Jelly doughnut A mere handful of months after the Opportunity
rover touched down on Mars, its cameras discovered a region of rocks in the vicinity of the landing
site that gave off the impression of being incredibly wonderful.
Scientists began naming these curiously spherical rocks "blueberries."
since they didn't know what they were looking at.
It's unknown how these rocks formed, but experts believe they are one of the earliest pieces
of evidence indicating Mars had a wet past.
If the Martian blueberries were enough to get your mouth watering, you won't believe
what's next.
On January 8, 2014, a bizarre object that resembled a powdered, jelly-filled doughnut
inexplicably appeared in front of the Opportunity rover's panoramic camera.
Earlier photographs of the exact location were oddly devoid of doughnuts.
Nobody knew what it was or where it came from, but the Martian doughnut enthralled people
on Earth.
After weeks of reviewing Opportunity photos, NASA scientists discovered that what appeared
to be a jelly-filled pastry was actually simply a plain old rock thrown up and pushed by the
rover's wheels.
Dinosaur Skull If you go through the thousands of images
returned from Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover, you'll see a lot of unique rock formations.
Some of them, such as one that resembles a toothy dinosaur skull, end up on Scott Waring's
UFO Sightings Daily.
The "Ancient Dinosaur Skull" is the most recent offering, yet the image was shot a long time
ago - on Sol 297 in June 2013, when Curiosity was passing through Glenelg.
Scientists believe the region was once a stream bed, as demonstrated by the rounded stones
strewn throughout the ground.
Some of the stones were lodged in the cracks of a wind-sculpted rock, prompting Waring
to draw attention to the dinosaurian appearance: "Look closely and you will see there is a
nostril area, lower jaw area and jaw hinge area as well," he says.
On the other hand, we believe that this is the most recent illustration of pareidolia,
which is the human inclination to find patterns that appear to have meaning even in occurrences
that are randomly arranged.
They are figments of our imaginations, which are in turn driven by our desire to be there
- on Mars – and to know that we are not alone.
Let’s hear what you think about these weird things discovered on Mars in the comments
section.