Chang, Kenneth. "NASA Confirms Signs of Water Flowing on Mars, Possible Niches for Life." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
Everyone knows water is a critical element to sustain life, but until now it has been found on no other planet. This week NASA has been able to confirm, after years of growing evidence, that Mars indeed contains flowing water on its surface. Scientists have known for a while that there was ice in polar caps on Mars, but not flowing liquid water. The reason scientists discovered flowing water must be on Mars was because they found perchlorates which are waterlogged molecules. This means to have perchlorates on Mars it is necessary that be water present to produce these hydrated salts. The reason why scientists initially hypothesized that there was water on Mars, was due to a few photographs of long dark streaks on the planet’s surface. The dark streaks would widen in the summer when temperatures were higher, then lighten in color and fade when the temperature cooled. Scientists did analysis on the chemical makeup of these streaks and that is how they discovered water was present. They still are working to discover the water’s source and to answer whether it comes from inside the planet or absorbs moisture from the air. Most scientists believe it is the first, due to the lack of humidity in the planet’s atmosphere. Today, there are talks of finding life on Mars and potential to send a spacecraft there in 2020. Scientists are now arguing where they have the best chance of finding microorganisms on Mars; whether that be in the “streaks” or not. Dr. Stillman feels that the streaks would be a perfect place to look and if they were too salty, like some scientists argue, the water would be flowing year round which it is not. Another issue with sending a spaceship to Mars is that NASA risks sending Earth’s bacteria along with the spaceship contaminating Mars and causing potential harm. In order to send a rover over it would have to be heated to such a high temperature that no bacteria could survive. NASA could still decide to send a rover there, but will just have to weigh the possibility of contamination against finding life.
The discovery of water on another planet is relevant to us because it gets us that much closer to the discovery of life. This means that there could possibly be another planet to sustain us which is important when thinking about our future and global warming. The discovery of water also leads to the very important question of if we think it is ethical to send a rover with possible bacteria on it to Mars. This is a question that the leaders of our world are going to have to answer very soon, so it will be interesting to see what they decide.
This article was very well written and really clearly explained the method scientists used to discover water on Mars. I was surprised that there is such a controversy on whether to send the rover or not because I automatically assumed that NASA would. I would improve the article by going more in depth about what NASA is going to do about the water if they cannot send a rover to Mars. The article made me wonder who gets to decide about sending over a rover, so I did a little more research and discovered that there was a treaty signed in 1967 which prevents us from being bacteria to Mars. There is one woman who holds most of the power in deciding whether we send the rover or not. Her name is Catharine Conley and her job at NASA is planetary protection officer. Overall, the article was very clear and really helped me understand the situation with Mars.
I thought that report was great. The report flows very smoothly. The order makes logical sense and it is very easy to read. I liked how there was enough background information and the reader is not left unclear about any topics discussed. It explained the relevance in detail and all the specific reasons and pieces of evidence for the findings were included in a very easy to understand manner. The topic choice was also a good choice because it is very relevant and its importance is made very clear. It also provided the scientific reasoning and importance of the water that was found and the mystery that still surrounds it.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I would say could be added, if included in the article, would be to talk about the human journey to mars a little more and how finding this water source has accelerated the priority of mars exploration.
This topic is very relevant because space exploration for life on other planets and the ability to support human life elsewhere has always been a high priority mission for humanity. Water is one of the key components that allows life to exist and survive on other planets. We’ve basically uncovered most, if not all of the regions here on Earth and space, as Star Trek always says, is the final frontier. This is a place where even with modern technology there are still mysteries to be uncovered.