First detection of boron on the surface of Mars New finding provides more clues about water habitability

ChemCam target Catabola is a raised resistant calcium sulfate vein with the highest abundance of boron observed so far. The red outline shows the location of the ChemCam target remote micro images (inset). The remote micro images show the location of each individual ChemCam laser point (red crosshairs) and the B chemistry associated with each point (colored bars). The scale bar is 9.2 mm or about 0.36 inches. Credit: JPL-Caltech/MSSS/LANL/CNES-IRAP/William Rapin

Boron has been identified for the first time on the surface of Mars, indicating the potential for long-term habitable groundwater in the ancient past. This finding and others from NASA's Curiosity rover science team will be discussed in a press conference today in San Francisco during the American Geophysical Union conference.

"No prior mission to Mars has found boron," said Patrick Gasda, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory. "If the boron that we found in calcium sulfate mineral veins on Mars is similar to what we see on Earth, it would indicate that the groundwater of ancient Mars that formed these veins would have been 0-60 degrees Celsius [32-140 degrees Fahrenheit] and neutral-to-alkaline pH." The temperature, pH, and dissolved mineral content of the groundwater could make it habitable. 

Mars with oceans - Imgur

The boron was identified by the rover's laser-shooting Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which was developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in conjunction with the French space agency. Los Alamos' work on discovery-driven instruments like ChemCam stems from the Laboratory's experience building and operating more than 500 spacecraft instruments for national defense. Boron is famously associated with arid sites where much water has evaporated away -- think of the borax that mule teams once hauled from Death Valley. However, environmental implications of the boron found by Curiosity are still open to debate. Scientists are considering at least two possibilities for the source of boron that groundwater left in the veins: 

The Curiosity rover on Mars with a simulated Chem- Cam laser pulse ResearchGate 

It could be that the drying out of part of Gale lake resulted in a boron-containing deposit in an overlying layer, not yet reached by Curiosity. Some of the material from this layer could have later been carried by groundwater down into fractures in the rocks. Or perhaps changes in the chemistry of clay-bearing deposits and groundwater affected how boron was picked up and dropped off within the local sediments.The discovery of boron is only one of several recent findings related to the composition of Martian rocks. Curiosity is climbing a layered Martian mountain and finding rock-composition evidence of how ancient lakes and wet underground environments changed, billions of years ago, in ways that affected their favorability for microbial life.

As the rover has progressed uphill, compositions trend toward more clay and more boron. These and other variations can tell us about conditions under which sediments were initially deposited and about how later groundwater moving through the accumulated layers altered and transported ingredients.Groundwater and chemicals dissolved in it that appeared later on Mars left its effects most clearly in mineral veins that filled cracks in older layered rock. But it also affected the composition of that rock matrix surrounding the veins, and the fluid was in turn affected by the rock.

Map of shallow subsurface water distribution on Mars 

"There is so much variability in the composition at different elevations, we've hit a jackpot," said John Grotzinger, of Caltech, Pasadena, Calif. As the rover gets further uphill, researchers are impressed by the complexity of the lake environments when clay-bearing sediments were being deposited and also by the complexity of the groundwater interactions after the sediments were buried.

"A sedimentary basin such as this is a chemical reactor," Grotzinger said. "Elements get rearranged. New minerals form and old ones dissolve. Electrons get redistributed. On Earth, these reactions support life." Whether Martian life has ever existed is still unknown. No compelling evidence for it has been found. When Curiosity landed in Mars' Gale Crater in 2012 the mission's main goal was to determine whether the area ever offered an environment favorable for microbes.Four recent drilling sites, from "Oudam" this past June through "Sebina" in October, are spaced about 80 feet (about 25 meters) apart in elevation. This uphill pattern allows the science team to sample progressively younger layers that reveal


Mount Sharp's ancient environmental history. "Variations in these minerals and elements indicate a dynamic system," Grotzinger said. "They interact with groundwater as well as surface water. The water influences the chemistry of the clays, but the composition of the water also changes. We are seeing chemical complexity indicating a long, interactive history with the water. The more complicated the chemistry is, the better it is for habitability. The boron and clay underline the mobility of elements and electrons, and that is good for life.


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A new study supports the possibility of life on Mars

In a new study published in the journal Astrobiology were analyzed in the course of forty years on the Red Planet. They believe that the existence of microbial life on Mars is possible.

The research is based on experiments carried out by the Labeled Release (LR) using Viking Mars probe landing, at the end of 1970. LR was created to search for chemicals produced by living organisms. The probe found several chemicals, according to the authors compiling the report in 1976, Gilbert Levin and Patricia Ann Straat. However, the results were classified as inconclusive.

The same researchers have worked on the new study reviewed information provided by Viking, combining them with recent results from missions of discovery of water on Mars. Experts have concluded that biological hypothesis is still valid.

In the experiments conducted by the LR, Mars soil samples were inoculated with a drop of a diluted nutrient solution attached to a radioactive carbon isotope. Air above the sample was monitored, and scientists have detected radioactive isotopes in samples of carbon dioxide. When they repeated the experiment, a week away, they found the same phenomenon.

Alternative hypothesis suggests that there is an oxidizing agent that changes in the carbon dioxide compound. The same results can be observed in the case of peroxide compound.

Although evidence from Viking ,, not provide sufficient evidence of life on Mars, the paper highlights the fact that there is such a possibility, '' said Chris McKay, Editor in NASA Ames Research Center in California.


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• Mars could support extraterrestrial life. A new image published by the European Space Agency shows the place that would have hosted life

Source:  IFL Science

Mars could support extraterrestrial life. A new image published by the European Space Agency shows the place that would have hosted life

The European Space Agency has revealed a new image of a valley on the Red Planet which in future could be landing site ExoMars mission in 2020.

The area has photographed over 5309 square meters and is surrounded Mawrth Vallis valley where ancient water on the surface structured forms that can be observed today. The researchers believe that this valley would have existed 3.6 billion years ago life.

Mawrth Vallis valley has a length of 600 kilometers, its depth is almost one kilometer. A long time ago, huge quantities of water passing through the area. The valley is located between the southern and the northern hilly plains, according to ESA.

Structures with lighter tones of color are made of clay minerals, indicating the presence of liquid water. According to NASA, the remains of volcanic ash in the form of ancient microbes may protect black rocks of clay. To create this image, the researchers combined nine images taken by high resolution camera probe Express.

The ship orbited the red planet in 2003, Mawrth Vallis and the valley was an important point of interest. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Mars was covered by a network of lakes and rivers with a billion years earlier than scientists had thought, which implies that Mars could support life. ,, I discovered valleys that would transport the water to the basins of lakes, '' said Sharon Wilson, Institutlui of the Smithsonian, Washington.

Wilson and his team have helped these conclusions through evidence uncovered in northern plant, Arabia Terra region.


,, One of the lakes in the region can be compared in volume with Lake Tahoe in California, Nevada, '' said Wilson

Source: Descopera

Water existed on Mars billions of years before scientists about the phenomenon Consider Possible

The new evidence provided by NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have revealed that the entire network of lakes and streams fed by melted snow on Mars existed much earlier than it imagined researchers.

Based on the new images taken on ancient region, north of Mars, researchers said there was a considerable amount of water ,, '' with about a billion years before the '' wet Age '' of the red planet to end. This indicates that the planet was suitable for microbial life for much longer than estimated by the researchers.

,, I discovered valleys carrying water to lake basins, '' said a team member, Sharon Wilson, of the Smithsonian Intitutului. ,, Some of the lakes filled pools indicates that there was a considerable amount of water in those times, '' she added.

Wilson and his team analyzed images recorded in the northern area of ​​Mars called Arabia Terra (an extremely eroded known as one of the oldest areas of the planet)

Researchers were able to identify signs of water evaporated long ago. ,, One of the lakes in the region can be compared with the amount as Lake Tahoe, '' Wilson said. The researcher explained that this lake was fed by a Martian valley south out of bed in the north and pouring a large pool called Heart Lake.

Heart Lake is part of the whole system of lakes and valleys that stretch 150 kilometers along the northern planet. The team estimated that the lake could support a quantity of 2,790 cubic kilometers of water. Based on information gathered from 22 craters in the area, the team concluded that these lakes there were two or three billion years. Meanwhile melted snow each season could supply all water areas.


Researchers said they found such formations in other parts of Mars, but the north and south of the equator humid regions were much more extensive.

Source: Science Alert

NASA announced the next mission to Mars

In March 2016, the launch of the probe from NASA, InSight has been postponed due to an error. The ship was to examine the interior of Mars.

But NASA said recently that mission launch will take place on May 5, 2018, will arrive on Mars after almost seven months, on November 26.

InSight is a stationary probe that will pierce the surface of Mars to five meters deep, to measure the temperature of the planet. Mission previously was postponed because of a breakage of the void that was discovered at one of the instruments probe called Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, which was to detect signals of earthquakes on Mars, the impacts from meteorites and other phenomena, such as sandstorms and landslides.

Launch to Mars can only occur at certain times when the planets are aligned in a certain way for the probe to reach the destination quicker. NASA warned that delaying the mission could affect other missions. The initial budget for the mission was 675 million dollars, the delay will cost another 153 million dollars.

Source: IFL Science

Was Venus Once A Habitable World Like Earth?

Experts assume that traces habitable landforms would have disappeared after a few hundred million years.

Until now, attention to the search for a habitable planet was focused on Mars, since it is assumed that it had a structure similar to Earth. There are, however, argue that we should take into account other variables such as, for example, Venus.

In a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of American researchers simulated the appearance that supposedly had a Venus, recreating how its surface showed, but the amounts of sunlight that reached here. The experiment results have led scientists to conclude that the planet was habitable in 2.9 billion years ago and 715 million years before, because here there is a temperature and water surfaces similar to those on Terra.

However, no evidence was found so far to indicate the presence of water on the surface of Venus, as it happens, for example, in the case of Mars. Here, researchers have identified the fingerprints of former rivers and oceans and believe that such structures could be found on Venus, but they were reshaped during volcanic activity occurred ago over 700 million years.

Experts have assumed, since Venus there was a habitable environment, should not exclude the possibility that there existed forms of life: ,, Both planets have oceans where water might have come into contact with rocks and organic molecules, giving rise to chemical processes. From what we know so far, these are the conditions that make possible the emergence of life, "says David Grinspoon, one of the coordinators of the study conducted by the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona.

Although Venus was habitable for nearly 2 billion years, it is uncertain whether complex life forms could have developed during this period. In this regard, we are given the example of the Earth, where the development of complex organisms lasted about 3 billion years.

Even if the history of living on Venus could be considered, scientists say, however, that we need much more information to reach a conclusion in this regard

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• Cloudy days on exoplanets may hide atmospheric water

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by iflscience.com . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

A special cosmic phenomenon will happen in August.The Event Will Be seen from anywhere in the world, with the naked eye.

In case you missed alignment of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn earlier this year, you'll have the opportunity to be witnessing a similar event to be held in August. The same five planets will be visible after sunset and before sunrise is not, as has been the case with previous phenomenon.

According to researcher Dr. Alan Duffy (Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia), planetary alignment can be best seen in August 21.

The astronomical phenomenon can be observed most clearly after sunset, at which Mercury and Venus will be at the smallest distance from the solar orb. For example, Venus will be positioned at a time, at an angle of only 10 degrees from the sun.

Venus and Jupiter will be most easily seen with the naked eye, since they are some of the largest cosmic objects in the Solar System. Mercury, Mars and Saturn will be also sighted in the sky, but they will be less visible.

The alignment of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn can be seen from any place on Earth, and if you miss and this event will have the opportunity to witness one similar to what will occur in October 2018





Source: iflscience.com