The probe that will photograph the
sunsets of Mars begins to work
→ Date: 2 MAR 2018
→ Scientific field: Science
→ Information source:
→ Summary: ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
reached the Martian orbit in October 2016, but it took a year and a half to
slow down and reach its final orbit, at an altitude of 400 kilometers. From
there, he will circle the planet once every two hours photographing sunsets to
look for little abundant gases in the backlight. The interest of detecting
trace amounts of very little gases such as methane is that they can reveal the
existence of invisible processes. Methane on Earth is associated with
biological activity and on Mars could be linked to the metabolism of microbes
that inhabit the subsoil. But methane could also discover some kind of
unexpected geological activity, just like sulfur. The new probe, which will
begin its scientific mission in April, will accumulate information to the
collection during decades.
→ Personal opinion:
This will cause a breakthrough for research on Mars
and to try to unravel the mystery about what happened to the oceans that once
bathed.Marc Paredes
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