NASA’s Gravity Map Shows How Water Once Flowed on the Red Planet

NASA reveals one of the most precise maps of Mars that looks anything but accurate, thanks to the tainted green shades. However, this new gravitational chart of the red planet by NASA has gotten deeper into the secrets of Mars, the closest neighbor to our planet. The scientists studied the tugs and pulls experienced by the spacecraft while orbiting the planet and based on this data the map was revealed.

While studying the orbit of the spacecraft, the space agency analyzed the small changes that the three crafts, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, faced while circling Mars. It took more than a decade for the agency to collate the data collected and to build this map. Signals from the Deep Space Network antennas situated around our planet were used by the craft. These signals were able to detect slight variations in their orbit and determine what it means with regards to the red planet's composition.

NASA, for example, explained that on Mars gravitational pull is greater on the mountains than it is on the valley. It also experiences a change as it moved to close to prominent physical features as well as craters.

"Gravity maps allow us to see inside a planet, just as a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient," explained Antonio Genova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who led the study at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre.

The thickness of the Mars' crust has been indicated to be within 120 kms as the map is able to spot irregularities for up to 100 kms.

"The new gravity map will be helpful for future Mars exploration, because better knowledge of the planet's gravity anomalies helps mission controllers insert spacecraft more precisely into orbit about Mars," said Genova.