The truth about 'giant finger' on Mars

American researchers have found the answer to the mysterious, seasonal occurrence of giant finger-like structures on steep terrain of the red planet.

According to the Daily Mail, the Mars exploration ships captured images of dark, finger-like structures that appeared and expanded below some of the steep slopes on the red planet from the end of the spring to the end of the season. Summer, then disappeared in the winter and returned in the spring of next year.

Two US researchers, including Vincent Chevrier - research associate professor at the Arkansas Planetary Science and Space Center and colleagues Edgard Rivera-Valentin from Brown University, discovered, 'giants' fingers are It is possible that the product of subsequent melting and evaporation of frozen salt water on the red planet.

Images of giant, dark fingers printed on some
Mars's steep slopes from late spring to early autumn. (Photo: NASA)

The mysterious structures were first discovered by the MRO probe of the US Aerospace Agency last year. They are usually longer and darker on the slopes of the rock toward the equator from late spring to early autumn. Studies published at the time suggest that these seasonal changes refer to the participation of a volatile substance, while the Mars environment is too warm for frozen carbon dioxide and too cold for pure water.

In the scientific community there is also the idea that the 'culprit' is some kind of salt water, but until recently, there has not been any theory about its structure given.

Chevrier and colleagues studied the types of salt formed on Mars to learn how they could affect the melting and evaporation times of ice and water. Based on models that dig deep down to 20cm of soil on the red planet (the threshold of depth that seasonal temperatures will not affect the freezing and melting of water-salt mixtures), they discovered that Calcium chloride itself is the cause of the formation of 'giant human fingers' on Mars.

The research team has demonstrated that, when there is enough low-concentration saline solution, they will melt, evaporate and disappear sequentially on the Martian seasonal temperature. They thus create flow, carved images of giant fingers on the slopes.

Mars is currently a frozen desert, but studies of geology for rocks on the surface of the red planet in earlier missions reveal that the planet was warmer and wetter.

Finding water is only the first step in determining whether Mars' environment can be suitable for bacterial life. Scientists generally agree that, outside the country and an energy supply (such as the Sun), organic carbon is also a prerequisite for life.