Abstract:

Each mission to Mars has revealed new discoveries regarding the amount, timing, and character of water on Mars. While the 1970s-era Viking data showed few signs of sustained water, more recent higher resolution mission data demonstrate a long history of surface water. Specifically, incision into the crust by past rivers took at least millions to 10s of millions of years. Many hundreds of paleolakes have been documented, and there is even significant evidence for a past ocean covering a third of the planet. Additionally, we now have some constraints on the chemistry of the fluids through time. This talk will highlight our current understanding of the history of water at Mars and what that means for the planet’s past habitability.

Speaker: Dr. Brian Hynek (University of Colorado)

Host: Yasuhito Sekine, ELSI.

Date: Wed. 3 June 16:00-17:00 JST

Venue: Mishima Hall, ELSI (Hybrid)