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Planet Mars
16.03.201117.06.2015 from Y. G. K.
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Mars
Mars is the fourth most distant planet from the Sun and the seventh largest in the Solar system; the mass of the planet is 10.7% of the mass of the Earth.
It is named after Mars — the ancient Roman god of war, corresponding to the ancient Greek Ares.
Sometimes Mars is called the "red planet" because of the reddish hue of the surface, given to it by iron oxide.
Mars is a planet of the Earth group with a rarefied atmosphere (the pressure at the surface is 160 times less than that of Earth).
The features of the surface relief of Mars can be considered impact craters like lunar ones, as well as volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps like terrestrial ones.
Mars has two natural satellites Phobos and Deimos (translated from ancient Greek - "fear" and "horror" - the names of two sons of Ares who accompanied him in battle), which are relatively small (Phobos 27 × 22×18 km, Deimos 15×12.2×10.4 km) and have an irregular shape.
Since the 1960s, the USSR ("Mars" and "Phobos"), the USA ("Mariner", "Viking", Mars Global Surveyor)have been engaged in direct research of Mars with the help of AMS and the European Space Agency (the Mars Express program).
Mars: hypotheses, facts and the search for life
On the twentieth of July, 1976, the landing compartment of the American automatic station "Viking 1"landed on the surface of the planet Mars in the area called Khrize.
On the sixth of September, about 1000 kilometers to the north, on the Utopia Plain, the Viking 2 landed.
Both stations transmitted black and white and color images of the Martian landscape, information about the composition of the soil and atmosphere, conducted some experiments to determine whether there is life on Mars.
One of the main tasks of the Vikings is the search for life on Mars.
The landing compartment carries a compact biological laboratory with instruments for some experiments and analyses.
A sliding mechanical hand with a scoop, having collected the soil, fills it into a dispenser, which distributes samples to three compartments of the biological laboratory.
There are one or two cubic centimeters of soil per compartment.
In the first compartment, filled with radioactive carbon dioxide, the sample is illuminated by the rays of a lamp that simulates the Sun.
If there are photosynthetic organisms of the Earth type in the soil, they will build organic compounds from radioactive carbon.
After a while, the chamber is purged with an inert gas, and the soil is heated to a high temperature.
Organic compounds in this case must decompose, turning into a radioactive gas.
The gas sample is pumped to a meter that measures radioactivity.
If carbon dioxide has been absorbed by a living organism, then the radioactivity will be increased.
In the second compartment, a liquid nutrient medium is added to the soil sample, which would be to the taste of any of the terrestrial microorganisms.
It also contains labeled carbon compounds.
After some time, due to the respiration of microorganisms, these compounds should appear in the air of the compartment, where they will be marked by a radioactivity meter.
In the third compartment, the sample is partially wetted with a nutrient liquid, and partially remains dry.
The atmosphere consists of helium, krypton and carbon dioxide.
Atmospheric samples periodically sucked out of the compartment are analyzed by an automatic gas chromatograph mass spectrograph.
This device sorts the molecules contained in the analyzed substance, determines their mass and quantity.
In the air of the third compartment, he looks for oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide — gases that can be released by hypothetical soil organisms.
It is assumed that the station's instruments can also find remnants of life, if it existed in the past on Mars.
One sample of the soil enters the gas chromatograph mass spectrograph without any pretreatment, without the addition of nutrient liquids.
The device should detect inanimate organic compounds in the soil the result of the vital activity of extinct organisms.
There is also an unlikely possibility that some large animals will run around the landed station.
Scanning TV cameras examine the surrounding landscape too slowly, they will not have time to transmit an image of a moving object to the Ground.
But from time to time, the rotation of the camera is interrupted, and it "peers" into a narrow strip that appeared directly in front of the lens.
If during this time something quickly flashes in the field of view, a signal about it will be sent to the Earth.
There have been no such cases yet.
What was discovered on Mars
What did the Vikings report in the first weeks?
Is there life on Mars?
No complex organic compounds were found in the soil sample.
When heated, a lot of water and a certain amount of CO2 were released from the soil.
This is a curious result.
Many scientists believed that there was no water on Mars.
However, experts emphasize that this is a relatively rough analysis, he could not catch organic matter if there is not much of it in the ground.
In addition, the released water (obviously, it is part of some minerals that disintegrate when heated) can mask organic molecules with its presence.
The experiment in the first compartment after incubating the soil for five Martian days gave a gas with a radioactivity of 96 pulses per minute.
For comparison: a similar experiment with lifeless or almost lifeless soil from Antarctica gives 11-40 pulses per minute.
In the second compartment, the sample was moistened with a few drops of nutrient fluid, and almost immediately the radioactivity of the atmosphere in the chamber began to increase.
After 4 days, its growth stopped.
After another 3 days, a nutrient liquid was added to the soil, which caused the radioactivity to increase a little more at first, and then fell by 30%, after which it began to grow very slowly again.
Here, unfortunately, the pre established period of experience has expired.
The experiment in the third compartment after the first humidification showed a rapid increase in the content of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air.
There were no changes in the next 7 days.
After the second humidification, oxygen was no longer released, and less CO2 was released than the first time.
After some time, the experiment was repeated in the second compartment, but the soil sample was previously heated to 160 degrees for 3 hours.
After adding the nutrient liquid, a certain amount of radioactive carbon dioxide was released in a few minutes, then the radioactivity of the gas in the compartment fell sharply.
As one of the biologists of the Viking group said, such results obtained on a sample of the earth's soil would clearly indicate that there is life in it.
However, none of the researchers took the liberty to make such a conclusion about the Martian soil.
Things may be different on Mars.
Experts believe that the results of all these experiments can be explained by chemical reactions occurring in soil samples under the influence of humidification, large amounts of CO2, lighting and heating.
After sterilization at 160°, the compounds responsible for these reactions could decompose, simulating the death of Martian microbes.
Others point out that the miniature biolab is designed, of course, taking into account our knowledge of Earth life and Martian microorganisms can react to the conditions offered to them in a completely different way than biologists expected.
Perhaps it is too warm in the experimental chambers — at minus 80 degrees outside, the temperature in the chamber does not fall below 5 degrees Celsius.
Maybe Martian organisms can only digest water in the form of ice?
Planet Mars: interesting facts
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Biological data from Mars still does not allow us to unequivocally answer the question whether there is life on Mars.
One of the NASA biologists said in an interview with a correspondent of an American magazine that the Viking mission may not give an answer to this question.
"Most likely," he said, " after the end of the experiment, we will have a set of very exciting and controversial data on our hands, but we are unlikely to be able to draw categorical conclusions from them."
••••••••••••
On the first day after landing, the Viking 1 station transmitted to Earth, in addition to photos and information about the composition of the atmosphere, the first weather report: in the evening, a weak easterly wind, after midnight changed to a southwesterly one, with a maximum speed of 6.7 meters per second, a pressure of 7.70 mbar, a temperature of minus 85.5° C in the early morning, much warmer in the afternoon — minus 30°C. Apparently, the temperature is still rising in the afternoon, but according to the program, the Viking weather station works only in the morning.
••••••••••••
The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 95 percent carbon dioxide, 2-3% is nitrogen (an element, according to terrestrial concepts, necessary for life), 1-2% is argon, only 0.3% is oxygen.
Carbon monoxide (carbon monoxide), krypton, xenon, and ozone are also found in small quantities.
The density of the Martian atmosphere is only 0.01 of the density of the Earth.
Scattered in the air, red dust particles with a diameter of about 0.1 micrometers give the Martian sky a brick hue.
••••••••••••
If we somehow condense all the water contained in a vaporous form in the atmosphere of Mars, make it rain on the surface of the planet.
Mars would be covered with a film of water about 0.1 millimeters thick.
For comparison, the water contained in the Earth's atmosphere would cover the planet with a layer about 3 centimeters thick.
••••••••••••
Analysis of the soil scooped up by the mechanical hand of the Viking 1 station showed that it contains 15-30% silicon, 12-16% iron, 3-8% calcium, 2-7% aluminum, less than 10% phosphorus, less than 7% manganese and cobalt, less than 5% chromium and nickel, less than 3% vanadium, 0.5-2% titanium, less than half a percent copper, hundredths of a percent molybdenum, zirconium, niobium, zinc, gallium, arsenic, strontium, bromine and a number of others elements.
These figures will still be clarified.
None of the known terrestrial rocks coincides in composition with the Martian soil.
••••••••••••
The Viking 2 orbital unit measured the surface temperature of the icy polar cap of the planet Mars.
It averages minus 67.7 °C.
Therefore, this is ordinary water ice, and not "dry ice", frozen carbon dioxide, as some astronomers assumed.
The polar cap of "dry ice" would have to have a temperature no higher than minus 123 °C.
••••••••••••
According to the composition of the atmosphere and surface rocks, it can be assumed that in previous archaeological epochs, the atmosphere of Mars could contain more oxygen and have a density of 0.1 of the earth's or even more.
Where could the oxygen have gone in this case?
Some of it is bound in carbon dioxide and iron oxides, some is "blown out" from the upper layers of the atmosphere by cosmic radiation.
Mars is smaller than Earth, its gravity is weaker, and fast particles hitting oxygen and nitrogen molecules accelerate them to a speed sufficient to escape into space.
••••••••••••
Images of the planet Mars taken by the Viking 1 orbital compartment showed that clouds of fog rise from some craters and crevices shortly after sunrise.
They were absent in the picture taken 50 minutes after sunrise, but are clearly visible as bright white spots in the photo taken another half hour later.
This is the first visual proof of the existence of water on Mars.
••••••••••••
The general almost uniform red color of the surface of Mars is probably explained by the presence of limonite: a mineral formed on Earth by the reaction of water with two other minerals: hematite and goethite.
Limonite is a hydrated iron oxide.
Two hypotheses have been put forward about the origin of Martian limonite:
— according to the first one, it remains from the times when the planet had a dense atmosphere rich in water vapor;
— according to the second, limonite has a modern origin — it occurs as a result of reactions between the Martian air and rocks containing iron, under the influence of strong ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
Perhaps both assumptions are true and part of the limonite is of ancient, and part is of modern origin.
The red film of limonite hides rocks of different composition, origin and color.
Apparently, around the "Viking" you can find at least six different rocks.
••••••••••••
The Viking 2 orbital compartment transmitted a photo of one of the two moons of Mars — Phobos.
It was taken from a distance of 877 kilometers.
The image shows details with a size of 40 meters or more.
As expected, the surface of Phobos is covered with craters formed as a result of meteorite impacts.
Relief features have also been found, the origin of which is still unclear — in the northern part of Phobos (it cannot be called the northern hemisphere — the satellites of Mars are not spherical), clear parallel stripes are visible, and in the middle part small craters are somehow arranged in chains.
Photographing the satellites of Mars will continue.
Categories: Science facts
Tags: Martian atmosphere, Viking, soil, limonite, Mars, sample, facts
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