Watch out for Mars, Hellas!

Hellas, Next stop for Water in Mars!
“You bloom quickly, you do what you need to do, and you go dormant” – Ms.Pratt, Bio-Geochemist, Indiana University.
This holds good not only for Martian Microbes but also for transient water locked up inside the Polygonal cracks in Mars. The Martian Water Exploratory program got more moxie when the recent NASA’s images from MRO mission revealed dark shifting streaks in Hellas Impact Basin.


What’s not in Morsels of Hellas!

The discovery points out to flow of liquid brine in Hellas in summer. It was highly surprising when I superficially read the history of this region. SHARAD radar in MRO previously discovered 250m thick water-Ice on upper crater and 300-450m on middle and lower crater in Hellas. Mars Express HRSC images located 3.5-4km massif and Glaciers with viscous material running down from the rim of the crater. Starting from VIKING’s temperature measurements, Hellas has been much enticing due to its low altitude, favorably high temperature (-18C in late afternoon to -46C at nights- from VIKING), and high Atmospheric vapor pressure of over10mb.the below image shows some gullies identified by MGS, Mars Orbital Camera


Pretty Evidences for Perplexing questions:

Question 1: Why the streaks vanish each winter?
Question 2: What darkens the soil?

The dark streaks point to events caused by Liquid water albeit absence of Spectroscopic signatures of pure water. The albedo variations and sharpness of streaks calls for the younger ages of the streaks. The small ridges shown in the image explain the deformed ice. This provides the key for liquid water beneath the Martian Regolith. The deformed sub surface ice may break through the Crust in short lived outbursts enabling the downhill transport of debris. Fluids migrate through these fractures which are caused by rupture of subsurface liquid reservoirs. The below image shows the Marstian glaciers in Hellas captured by the HRSC camera in Mars Express (ESA)



Numerous Martian Gullies detected in the same basin hypothesizes the flow of Underground fluid either pure water/brine/acidic/Alkaline. The dark deposits in the rim of the basin are caused by internal erosion. The Atmospheric pressure of 11mb at the bottom of the basin (subsurface) and temperature above triple point of water beneath the Martian Soil in Hellas reinforce the striking presence of Ground Ice which melts in summer causing the dark streaks. Thus the morphological features in the image presumably suggest carving by Ground water/Ice, perhaps through capillary action rather than flowing brine on the surface of Mars.

P.S: The aforementioned points complement the research evidence submitted by UA team.
This link can make the reading further interesting :http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/126800063.html