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Discovery of water on Mars is significant
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The discovery of water on Mars shows that scientists are learning new things about the solar system all the time, a Youngstown State University professor said.
“It’s a significant finding,” said Patrick Durrell, an astronomy professor and director of YSU’s Ward Beecher Planetarium. “It doesn’t mean there is life on Mars, but it opens up that possibility.”
NASA announced the discovery Monday.
Water had been found on the red planet before – frozen ice under the soil.
“There have been previous detections that it used to have water on its surface,” Durrell said.
Marks on the planet’s surface indicated the possibility of water on its surface. This just gives further evidence, Durrell said.
It’s not giant pools of water, but smaller markings.
“They’ve found that at different times of the year they appear darker,” the professor said.
Photographs taken by the Mars orbiter have shown the impressions.
“At colder times of the Martian year, they didn’t,” Durrell said. “This is a phenomenon that occurs when it warms up.”
While water is a main resource required for life, there are other obstacles.
“Mars is colder than the earth is,” the professor said, adding that there’s also radiation on the planet’s surface.
“There are a lot of issues to be resolved before we start talking about living there,” he said. “But as far as the rest of the planets, it’s our best bet.”
Venus, for example, is far too hot.
An interesting question, Durrell said, is if there used to be life on Mars.
The latest announcement doesn’t address that.
“Did Mars have water in the past?” he said. “If so, how much? Maybe there was some kind of microbial life that evolved somewhere in the Mars path. That would indicate that life had some kind of a brief foothold.”
Scientists are learning more about Mars all the time. While the moon doesn’t change, all of the planets go through changes, Durrell said.
“It shows we don’t know everything about our solar system,” he said. “Mars is the planet we know the most about yet this is something new. It leaves me wanting more.”