Sunday, March 18, 2007
Polar water 'would blanket Mars'
Enough water is locked up at Mars' south pole to cover the planet in a liquid layer 11m (36ft) deep.
Analysis of the Marsis radar data shows that the polar deposits consist of almost pure water-ice.
The findings appear in the journal Science and were also presented this week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.
It was known by the 1970s that the north and south polar regions of the Red Planet were blanketed by thick accumulations of layered material.
Based upon data from the Mariner and Viking projects, the polar layered deposits were considered to be accumulations of dust and ice.
Today, polar layered deposits hold most of the known water on Mars, though other areas of the planet appear to have been very wet at times in the past. The south polar layered deposits alone are the size of the US state of Texas.
Understanding where the water went is considered crucial to knowing whether the Red Planet could once have supported life.
The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (Marsis) gathered data on the south polar region over the course of about 300 orbits of Mars Express.
It was able to reach through the icy layers to the lower boundary, which can be as deep as 3.7km (2.3 miles) below the surface.
The radar penetrated through the chaotic, lumpy deposits with very little attenuation (reduction in signal strength), suggesting they were almost 90% water-ice; the rest being dust.
The radar cannot tell whether there is carbon dioxide mixed in with the water-ice, but lead author Jeff Plaut told BBC News that the thickness of the ice also pointed to a composition of nearly pure frozen water.Labels: Jeff Plaut, Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Mariner, Mars, Marsis, polar water, Viking
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