ESA
They are giant, changeable and mysterious – intrigue scientists since the 70’s. Now the secret is finally revealed, and is simpler than we thought.
The strange dark and clear stripes that cover the slopes near Olympus Mons in Mars have intrigued scientists since the 1970s, when they were revealed by NASA’s Viking probes. The most intriguing thing is that they appear and disappear without warning – then remain indefinite, from months to months.
They are giant, with hundreds of meters, change brightness and color with the seasons and appear on the slopes of both Mars hemispheres. A theory with many years suggests that They were created by saltwater flows, or brine. However, a team of scientists has proven now that this is not true.
The new published in May in the magazine Nature yes suggests that these stripes are caused by Dry dust avalanches triggered by wind, impacts or travel of rocks.
Researchers used an automatic learning algorithm to analyze and catalog slope stretch marks 86,000 satellite images From NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance (MRO), explains.
Scientists combined several decades of orbital data and the neural power of deep learning to produce a Global map with almost 500,000 stretch mark characteristics on Mars.
Several factors can trigger the process of sliding thin dust, the investigators concluded. THE fall of rocks, impacts of small meteoroids or gusts of wind that cause shock waves and shake the dust are options.
ESA’s Exomars Trace Gas Probe continues to make images of Mars from orbit to understand his old past and potential habitability., But one of the great bets of various scientists with regard to water has fallen (literally) to earth.
