Scientists have found unusual ridge networks on Mars using images from the Red Planet. The history of Mars has remained unknown because of how and why the ridges formed.
A team of scientists, led by Aditya Khuller of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration and Laura Kerber of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, set out to learn more about these ridges by mapping a large area of Mars.
The ridges on Mars may hold ancient records of ancient water flowing through them.
Since the ridge networks were found, they have remained a mystery. Scientists have determined that there are three stages that were involved in creating the ridges, including filling, erosion and polygonal fracturing.
The team combined the data from the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter instruments to learn more about the ridges. They used the platform Zooniverse to deploy their citizen scientist project.
The search for the ridge networks on Mars was led by nearly 14,000 citizen scientists from around the world. The team was able to map the distribution of 952 ridge networks with the help of citizen scientists.
Citizen scientists played an important role in this research because these features are essentially patterns at the surface, so almost anyone with a computer and internet can help identify these patterns using images of Mars.
Most of the ridge networks are located in eroded terrain that is approximately 4 billion years old. Mars is thought to have been warmer and wetter during this time period.
The ridges which were not covered with layers of dust had clays in them. Since clays form from weathering in the presence of water, this suggested to the research team that the ridges may have been formed by the water. The ridge networks mapped by Khuller and Kerber's team are similar in shape and size to the ones mapped in the past, suggesting that they may have formed from the same processes.
Scientists can use this discovery to trace the footprints of the underground water that flowed through the ancient Martian surface.
We hope to eventually map the entire planet with the help of citizen scientists.
More information: Aditya R. Khuller et al, Irregular polygonal ridge networks in ancient Noachian terrain on Mars, Icarus (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2021.114833 Journal information: Icarus Citation: Citizen scientists help map ridge networks on Mars (2022, April 6) retrieved 6 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-citizen-scientists-ridge-networks-mars.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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