Sensational find on Mars: vast amounts of water discovered under the "Grand Canyon"

Created: 01/01/2022Updated: 01/01/2022, 6:58 AM

By: Tanja Banner

A space probe makes a spectacular find beneath a gigantic rift system - nicknamed the “Grand Canyon” - on Mars.

Frankfurt - There is water on Mars, mainly on the poles, that is already known.

But now researchers have made a groundbreaking new discovery on the red planet: vast amounts of water in a region called Valles Marineris (Mariner Valleys).

This is a huge rift system that extends over a length of 4000 kilometers and a width of up to 700 kilometers and has valleys up to 7000 meters deep.

The system is also called the “Grand Canyon” of Mars and is the focus of the new discovery.

In order to find the water in the “Grand Canyon” on Mars, researchers evaluated data from the European-Russian “Trace Gas Orbiter” (TGO), which has been orbiting the red planet since October 2016.

The orbiter has the FREND (Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector) instrument on board, which can look up to one meter below the surface of Mars and detect hydrogen - a component of water.

The Valles Marineris extends at the equator of Mars over a length of 4000 kilometers and a width of up to 700 kilometers.

Image of the Nasa probe “Viking” from 1998. © Nasa / JPL / USGS

Look under the surface of Mars: track down “oases rich in water”

"With TGO we can see what is really going on under the surface of Mars and we can locate water-rich 'oases' that could not be discovered with previous instruments," explains Igor Mitrofanov from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow is the lead author of a new study describing the water find on Mars and published in the journal Icarus.

With the help of the FREND instrument, the researchers were able to discover a region "with an unusually high proportion of hydrogen" in the Valles Marineris canyon system, Mitrofanov reports in a communication from the European space organization Esa.

Discovered vast amounts of water in the "Grand Canyon of Mars"

"Assuming that the hydrogen we see is bound in water molecules, forty percent of the near-surface material in this region appears to be water," the researcher summarizes the find on Mars.

The region in which the scientists suspect the water is said to be about the size of the Netherlands and extends to the deep valleys of a region called Candor Chaos.

In order to discover the water on Mars, Mitrofanov and other scientists evaluated observations from May 2018 to February 2021.

The FREND instrument did not observe light, but neutrons.

“Neutrons are created when high-energy particles known as galactic cosmic rays hit Mars,” explains co-author Alexey Malakhov.

Dry soil emits more neutrons than moist soil, so it was possible to deduce how much water was in the soil.

Since FREND enables a better spatial resolution than other instruments, it has now been possible to discover water that was previously not noticed.

Water on Mars: Researchers evaluate data from a European Mars orbiter

“We found out that a central part of the Valles Marineris is full of water - much more water than we expected,” emphasizes Malakhov, comparing the find with the earth: “This is similar to the permafrost regions on earth where water ice is due the constant low temperatures under the dry soil persist. ”The water could exist in the form of ice or as water that is chemically bound to other minerals in the soil.

"Overall, we think that this water exists more in the form of ice," says Malakhov, summarizing the research team's findings.

Data from the Esa-Mars orbiter TGO show that there is water in the Valles Marineris.

The colored scale shows the amount of "water-equivalent hydrogen" (WEH) by weight (wt%).

© I. Mitrofanov et al.

(2021)

In the region of Mars in which the researchers found the water, water ice usually evaporates due to the temperature and pressure conditions; the same applies to chemically bound water: only with the right combination of pressure, temperature and hydration do not lose minerals on Mars Water.

This suggests that in the Valles Marineris there must be a special mix of conditions in order to maintain the water - or to replenish it, according to the Esa announcement.

Mars Research: "An Incredible First Step"

Håkan Svedhem, co-author of the study and Esa employee, is already looking to the future: "This finding is an incredible first step, but we need more observations to know for sure in what form the water exists." the find, however, the capabilities of the instruments of the "Trace Gas Orbiter", which show a "large, not too deep and easily accessible water reservoir in this region of Mars".

The "Trace Gas Orbiter", which has been orbiting Mars since 2016, is the first part of the European-Russian ExoMars program.

The second part is to set off for the red planet in 2022: The European rover "Rosalind Franklin" is sitting on the Russian platform "Kazachok" and is supposed to find out whether there was ever life on Mars.

He is not alone with this task: The NASA rovers “Curiosity” and “Perseverance” also have this task.

The newest Mars rover "Perseverance" has caused quite a stir lately: First it solved "one of the greatest riddles" on Mars, then it answered a question about Mars that researchers have so far been desperate for.