Question: Which of the following Mars orbiter has recently revealed that Mars had water two billion years ago?
a) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
b) MAVEN Mission
c) MOM
d) None of these
Answer: (a)
Related Facts:-
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has made the discovery that Mars had water two billion years ago but it has evaporated today.
- Scientists discovered the existence of chloride salt deposits upon the Mars surface left behind by flowing water.
- This discovery is based on years of data being collected from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
- It should be noted that NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking rounds of the planet since 2006.
- This was possible by studying several images of salt deposits taken from the orbiter’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).
- They interpreted a younger age for the salt deposits using a method dubbed ‘crater counting.
- This method means that if basically, if a region is younger, it has fewer craters in along with adjustments for other parameters.
- NASA’s Odyssey, which is orbiting the Mars since 2001, discovered sodium chloride deposits that covered tens to hundreds of square kilometers.
By Rajesh Tripathi