Exploring Mars

Inspiration Drawings by Dianna Gouskos, 3rd Grade Turner School, April 2000, Mars Millennium Project

Rovers Exploration comes from a combination of sources. Earth telescopes Orbiters Landing craft The Rover program has had seven vehicles. Opportunity since 2004 Curiosity since 2012 http://mars.nasa.gov

Is There Water? Schiaparelli (1877) saw “canals” on Mars. These were actually shaded areas due to dust storms and surface features. The atmosphere is too thin to sustain liquid water.

Polar Caps Like Earth, Mars has polar caps that change with the seasons. Cold temperatures on Mars mean that part of the polar ice is carbon dioxide as well as water.

Surface Water Canyons are evidence of water that once flowed. Boulders on the surface were moved by ancient floods.

Underground Mars had a thicker atmosphere in the past. 3.8 billion years ago Lakes and seas Some water today is frozen underground, covered by dust. Surface outcrops dust ice crust

Is There Life? Mars had water and an atmosphere. The chemical building blocks are plentiful in space. On Earth, life appeared after about 1 billion years. First life forms were bacteria.

Mars Rock on Earth 16 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Mars. Mars rocks were thrown into space, drifted, and one landed in Antarctica 13,000 years ago. The chemical and gas composition of the meteorite matches Mars, not Earth.

Mars Fossils A Martian meteorite from Antarctica has evidence of water and carbon. 3.6 billion years old The meteorite has microscopic tubes like bacteria fossils. There is no agreement among experts yet.

Methane Gas Methane gas is associated with organic processes No active Martian volcanoes Large areas of methane detected from the crust. Underground bacteria? False readings?