Nasa finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars

[Luiz 4,253]

 

 

 

A massive ancient ocean once covered nearly half of the northern hemisphere of Mars making the planet a more promising place for alien life to have gained a foothold, Nasa scientists say.

The huge body of water spread over a fifth of the planet’s surface, as great a portion as the Atlantic covers the Earth, and was a mile deep in places. In total, the ocean held 20 million cubic kilometres of water, or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found.

Unveiled by Nasa on Thursday, the compelling evidence for the primitive ocean adds to an emerging picture of Mars as a warm and wet world in its youth, which trickled with streams, winding river deltas, and long-standing lakes, soon after it formed 4.5bn years ago.

The view of the planet’s ancient history radically re-writes what many scientists believed only a decade ago. Back then, flowing water was widely considered to have been a more erratic presence on Mars, gushing forth only rarely, and never forming long-standing seas and oceans.

“A major question has been how much water did Mars actually have when it was young and how did it lose that water?†said Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/05/nasa-finds-evidence-of-a-vast-ancient-ocean-on-mars Full Article

 

[Jenniferella 2,775]

Fascinating !!! It's a shame GGD isn't here for this 

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

 

[Haroon 49,685]

Wow  That means that Mars used to be a much warmer planet because now it's almost always too cold for water, it'd just freeze up. We've been getting hotter while Mars has been getting colder  

[wiltedbliss 915]

I love learning about space  This got me really fascinated  Imagine the things yet to be discovered  

[Babel 41,637]

I wonder what happened, what made it colder than it was?

[Brooke Hoegan 1,018]

so, did the water escape into space ?

let's hope it won't happen to us

[darkchylde 14,857]

Wow  That means that Mars used to be a much warmer planet because now it's almost always too cold for water, it'd just freeze up. We've been getting hotter while Mars has been getting colder  

​in4 katy perry

[Yanko 9,860]

im sure there was life on mars at some point

and im sure there is life in other galaxies 

anyone who sais otherwise is delusional at this point 

[SleepingSun 1,368]

I've been reading about Mars past a lot. There are many people who indeed believe in the ancient ocean theory. Others, though, believe that the big canyons we see today were not formed by oceans filled with water, but rather oceans of lava. Anyway, there has been proof that even today water exists on Mars. Sometimes a bit of water comes to the surface and evaporates, due to the extremely low atmospheric pressure on Mars. It's really fascinating If we want to find live in our solar system, Mars and Europa are the most likely places to find it.

[darkwolf 590]

Isn't this like old news?

[Kayla 7,595]

That's so cool!

[faux 2,190]

So if there was water, there was also life?

[heavyMetalGAGA 65]

So if there was water, there was also life?

​Most likely, yes Even if it is just microbial activity and primatial life, it is still fascinating and important for future scientific exploration! 

[MAC 1,963]

Very interesting.