UBC researchers have concluded that early Martian landscape probably looked similar to this image of … [+] the Devon ice cap.
Anna Grau Galofre (used with permission)
Was the “red planet” once the “white planet?”
It’s known that the southern highlands of Mars are dissected by hundreds of valley networks, which were thought to be evidence that flowing water once sculpted the Martian surface.
There were rivers on Mars?
Probably not. New research published in Nature Geoscience suggests that most of the valleys were caused not by flowing water, but by water melting beneath glaciers.
Given what scientists know about early Mars, this makes a lot more sense than the Martian surface hosting liquid water rivers.
It may even increase the chances for ancient life on Mars.
What was ancient Mars like?
Climate simulations suggest that ancient Mars was cold and icy. After all, Mars is further away from the sun than Earth, and when its surface was forming 3.8 billion years, the Sun was less intense. Through that lens, liquid water running amok across its surface—as rivers, rainfall and oceans—does seem hopeful.
So is the “warm and wet” theory of ancient Mars as dead as the planet is today?
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Was early Mars a world of ice sheets rather than rivers?
“For the last 40 years, since Mars’ valleys were first discovered, the assumption was that rivers once flowed on Mars, eroding and originating all of these valleys,” said Anna Grau Galofre, a SESE Exploration Post-doctoral Fellow at Arizona State University and a former PhD student at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
“But there are hundreds of valleys on Mars, and they look very different from each other.”
Examining 10,000 of Martian valleys, Grau Galofre and her co-authors compared the Martian valleys to the subglacial channels in the Canadian Arctic archipelago.
The similarities were striking.
Collage showing Mars’s Maumee valleys (left half) superimposed with channels on Devon Island in … [+] Nunavut (right half). The shape of the channels, as well as the overall network, appears almost identical.
Anna Grau Galofre (used with permission)
Earth and Mars from above
“If you look at Earth from a satellite you see a lot of valleys: some of them made by rivers, some made by glaciers, some made by other processes, and each type has a distinctive shape,” said Grau Galofre. “Mars is similar, in that valleys look very different from each other, suggesting that many processes were at play to carve them.”
However, she thinks that the dominant mechanisms are linked to water melting beneath glaciers, not rivers.
The case of Devon Island
The motivation behind the study came from the similarity between valleys on Mars and the subglacial channels on Devon Island in Baffin Bay in the Canadian Arctic.
It’s the largest uninhabited island in the world.
“Devon Island is one of the best analogues we have for Mars here on Earth—it is a cold, dry, polar desert, and the glaciation is largely cold-based,” said co-author Gordon Osinski, professor in Western University’s department of earth sciences and Institute for Earth and Space Exploration.
An aerial view of the CCGS Amundsen, a Canadian reasearch ice-breaker navigating near an ice floe … [+] along Devon Island, in the canadian High Arctic. CLEMENT SABOURIN/AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images
Is the ‘warm and wet’ hypothesis dead?
This research provides the first-ever evidence for meltwater drainage beneath an ancient ice sheet on Mars.
“The findings demonstrate that only a fraction of valley networks match patterns typical of surface water erosion, which is in marked contrast to the conventional view,” said co-author Mark Jellinek, professor in UBC’s department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences. “Using the geomorphology of Mars’ surface to rigorously reconstruct the character and evolution of the planet in a statistically meaningful way is, frankly, revolutionary.”
Geomorphology is the study of landforms and how they evolved.
“Climate modelling predicts that Mars’ ancient climate was much cooler during the time of valley network formation,” said Grau Galofre. “We tried to put everything together and bring up a hypothesis that hadn’t really been considered—that channels and valleys networks can form under ice sheets, as part of the drainage system that forms naturally under an ice sheet when there’s water accumulated at the base.”
What does this mean for the possibility of ancient life on Mars?
Ice rather than liquid water means less chance of ancient life, right?
Not so, say the researchers, who point out that a sheet of ice would mean a stable body of water that was protected from solar radiation. In short, such pools of water under glaciers could possibly have hosted ancient life.
As well as uncovering more about ancient Mars, it’s thought that the analytical tools developed for this research could be used to help reconstruct the history of glaciation on Earth. Currently researchers can look back to a maximum of five million years; these new tools could extend that to at least 35 million years ago.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
