New discovery on Mars - Ice cliffs were discovered

Acute slopes, seen in photos taken by a NASA spacecraft, have revealed eight sites with massive ice deposits near the surface of Mars, a possible source of water that could promise human foci on the Red Planet, scientists said. the future.

Scientists already know that about one-third of the surface of Mars has a light layer of ice and that its poles contain large ice deposits, but Thursday's research revealed thick ice sheets beneath the slopes of up to 100 meters at the midlatitudes of the planet.

"It's surprising to find ice on the surface in these areas," said Colin Dandas, a geologist at the Center for Planetary Geology in Arizona, a center of the US Geological Survey that led the study. The surface is covered with dust. "

The researchers used images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which studies Mars's atmosphere and terrain since 2006, as well as the date of water flows on or near its surface.

The results show that ice may be more readily available than was conceived to be used as a water source to support robot exploration missions or future human expeditions or possibly establish a permanent base on Mars.

Water may be used for drinking or potentially converted to oxygen to breathe.

"Humans need water everywhere they go and it's too heavy to carry it with you," said Sean Bayern, a scientist who studied planets in the Moon and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona and co-author of the study in the journal Science. "Previous ideas for drinking water from Mars It was derived from a very humid weather or through breaking rocks containing water. "

"We have what we think is pure water buried barely under the surface ... you do not need a high-tech solution ... you can go with a bucket and a sieve and gather enough water."

Sediments were discovered in seven geological formations, such as the slopes in the southern half of Mars and another in the northern half of it.