Mars Mysteries That SHOCKED Astronomers

 

the first photograph that a human being  has ever seen from the surface of  another planet  on august 20th 1975 the first viking  spaceship was launched  you were seeing something that no other  human has  ever seen before former seas and  mountains  huge canyons  one thing that wasn't so expected was  the specific configuration of the  electric currents  that we derived from the magnetic field  data if mars is a ball here it's sort of  this  cup shape on the day side that loops  back on itself  the red planet continues to amaze us  with all the new discoveries that are  made there  and all the new mysteries that continue  to emerge from there  with rovers such as curiosity and  perseverance giving us more glimpses  into the planet than ever before  we now have even more questions about  mars  here are the mars mysteries that shocked  astronomers  number 10. water on mars we had this  fantastic discovery these dark streaks  we see on the surface of mars  are actually briny salty water  flowing on the surface of mars today  one of the most important resources we  have for life here on earth  is our steady and abundant water  resources that help  practically all life on earth survive  one thing that has always intrigued  scientists about mars is the very real  possibility that there may have been  water on mars once  and some of it still might be there  there is a theory that there was once a  vast ocean covering most of mars  similar to what we have on earth today  not only that but there was an elaborate  system of rivers and lakes on the planet  but eventually mars atmosphere began to  shrink and with it most of the water on  the planet started to evaporate  there's still a lot of doubts about this  though as mars is simply too cold for  there to have ever been such a system  back then  even when its atmosphere was stronger  the sun was much weaker  and thus the planet couldn't have gotten  warm enough for rivers and oceans to  thrive  number nine mysterious statue on mars  since we started capturing images of the  red planet  there have been a lot of interesting  formations that have been caught on  camera  that have piqued the interest of quite a  few conspiracy theorists and even  serious scientists  one of these mysterious photographs is  that of what looks like a statue of a  human head while this photo looks  nothing outside  of the ordinary for mars zooming into it  reveals the head that seems simply too  precise and detailed to not have been  man-made  nasa claims it's a completely natural  rock formation  and that if the photo were clearer it  wouldn't look anything like a human head  still the resemblance is uncanny and  many people to this day believe it's  something that was placed there  rather than something that formed itself  do you buy into this theory  let us know in the comments below number  eight is there currently life on mars  one big question that both we and the  scientists and astronomers have about  mars is clear  is there any life on mars right now the  answer to that is much more complicated  than you might expect  despite never having found a trace of  life on mars in any of its missions  nasa still has never come out and  explicitly said  there's no life on mars i'm looking at  mars from the point of view of a microbe  and as a microbe i really need a very  very tiny amount of water i could  probably live my entire life happily  in a tiny drop of water about the size  of the point of a pen  now we've shown over the years that  organisms that live in salt crusts on  the earth  have enough sunlight coming in so that  they can go through their day-to-day  activities  but still be protected from the  radiation because  even they don't know while living on  mars without any external protection  might be impossible for humans  we don't know whether there are small  microscopic creatures on mars that we  aren't able to see with the naked eye  tardigrades are tiny animals from earth  that can only be seen from a microscope  and many scientists believe that they  would be able to survive the conditions  on mars all on their own  and if they can survive mars it's also  possible that mars may  already have some life on it that's  similar to tardigrades  number seven is mars the reason for life  on earth  while finding life on mars may be a  difficult task finding life on earth is  pretty easy  just look all around you we know a lot  about how life on earth originated  but one fascinating theory about life on  earth is that it may have had its roots  on mars itself  while most historians and scientists  find this theory highly unlikely  some of them have touched on it before  in antarctica there have been some  meteoroids found that were originally  from mars  and they were blasted to the earth some  millennia ago  what's interesting about these  meteoroids is that they contain marks  and traces of microbes that resemble  those that are found on earth itself  even nasa scientists held a press  conference and marveled at the fact that  such a discovery was made  who knows perhaps life on earth might  have something to do with these  meteorites from mars  number six was there ever life on mars  well the question of whether there's  currently life on mars remains  unanswered by nasa or any other major  space agency the answer to that question  is most likely no but what scientists  are more intrigued by  is it mars's present but its past  as we've already mentioned mars may have  once been a planet that was covered by a  vast ocean  as well as a network of thriving rivers  and lakes along huge valleys  it was once a volcanically active planet  as well  all this begs the question that when the  planet was so different  was there life on it it's really  something that might never be answered  because we don't know what to look for  do you look for traces or fossils of  human-like creatures  or do we simply grab a microscope and  look for the tiniest creatures we can  scientists are working day and night to  answer these exact questions  and with rovers like the perseverance  rover actually collecting samples from  the planet we can later use  this may be answered in the coming years  number five  the difference between mars is northern  and southern hemisphere  on the earth the northern and southern  hemispheres act quite differently from  each other when it comes to weather  but overall they're mostly the same  you'll find similar mountains  oceans ice caps and other features on  both the northern and southern  hemispheres of the earth  but when it comes to mars the two sides  couldn't be more different  some people say that mars has two faces  its northern face and its southern face  mars northern hemisphere is  characterized by a smooth and flat  terrain  that's sometimes considered one of the  smoothest terrains in the universe  while its southern hemisphere is almost  entirely made up of rough  rocky and mountainous terrain that  varies in elevation everywhere  scientists can figure out what exactly  causes this contrast and are actively  trying to come up with an answer  number four methane on mars uh microbes  of various sorts can release methane  there are a variety of geologic  processes  volcanoes can release methane  so the mere fact that there's methane  doesn't say  life methane is the simplest organic  molecule  so who would have known that there would  be such a mystery related to it  methane was first discovered on mars in  2003 by the esa's  mars express spacecraft while on earth  most methane is produced by thriving  life  such as cattle or other animals we have  no idea how methane is being produced on  mars  the esa sent the exomar spacecraft to  mars in 2016  to continue studying the cause of this  methane and  we might soon know why it's there number  three  valley of the boulders in 2001  nasa invited a group of nine teenage  girls to take a look at the red planet  themselves  and direct the mars global surveyor  camera no one at nasa  expected the girls to actually discover  something new and everyone was shocked  when they pointed the camera towards a  strange collection of boulders  located on an otherwise empty smooth  terrain  this led to a lot of confusion in the  room at the time  and even more confusion after the  discovery was announced  the location was subsequently named  valley of the boulders  number two mysterious white light a nasa  spokesperson was quoted  in the daily mail saying one possibility  is that the light  is the glint from a rock surface  reflecting the sun one of the pictures  on mars we have a look at it  it looks like there's somebody in the  distance holding a mirror up and  flashing it towards our curiosity rover  or maybe it's  headlights from a car or something when  these images were taken each day  the sun was in the same direction as the  bright spot  west northwest from the rover and  relatively low in the sky  not a lot of people are buying the story  but whatever it is  certainly has all of our attention  number one  can humans live there and finally the  mystery that has  everyone confused is the possibility of  humans one day inhabiting mars  with people like elon musk spending  billions of dollars through spacex for  future mars colonization projects  that question might be answered soon  there have been replication experiments  done on earth to resemble life on mars  that lasted for six years and they  showed a lot of promise  but actually doing it still required a  lot more technological advancements  within the coming years as spacex grows  and nasa and other space agencies take  colonization matters more seriously  we might finally know whether or not  mars will be truly inhabitable  for humans if you enjoyed this article  make sure to give it a like and  subscribe to our channel for more articles  like this