New gravitational analysis of Mars improves understanding of a possible ancient ocean

The use of a new method to analyze Mars’ gravity supports for the first time the idea that the planet once had a large ocean in its north.

In doing so, this method further defines the extent of what scientists call the northern Martian paleocean.

Work published in Icarus magazine.

The research was led by Jaroslav Klokočník, professor emeritus at the Institute of Astronomy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Gunther Kletetschka, research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, is one of three co-authors.Kletetschka is also affiliated with Charles University in the Czech Republic.

“A lot of people are excited about water on Mars because there could be life forms that once existed on Mars or could exist today in the form of bacteria,” Kletetschka said. “We can use this fascinating method to search for water on Mars because we have already done it on Earth.”

“For example, in one area in North Africa, this fascinating method uncovered the shoreline of an ancient lake, and its findings are consistent with archaeological ointing to the shoreline of that lake,” he said.

The authors write that analyzing Mars’ gravitational aspects to better understand the planet will improve on previous approaches. They note that it can “provide comprehensive information with a better understanding of the celestial body, applicable in geology, geophysics, hydrology, glaciology and other disciplines.”

The work of Kletetschka and colleagues departs from the traditional approach of mapping the surface based solely on gravitational anomalies.

Gravitational anomalies are regions of greater or lesser gravity caused by surface features of a planetary body. A mountain would exert a greater gravitational pull because it has a higher mass density than would be expected on a planet with no surface features.Ocean basins and trenches will have less gravity.

In their study of Mars, the authors used a procedure developed by Klokočník to analyze gravitational aspects calculated from gravitational anomaly measurements. Gravitational aspects are mathematical products that characterize gravitational anomalies.

They also used terrain data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, which launched in November 1996 and mapped the planet over 4½ years .

Klokočník used this method to confirm previous research on the existence of large paleontological lakes or paleontological systems beneath the Saharan sands on Earth.His 2017 research paper also proposed part of the Great Egyptian Sand Sea as another candidate for the ancient lake.

The gravitational aspect method has also been used to compare Earth’s geographical features with those of cloud-covered Venus. The research is described in a July 2023 article in the journal Scientific Reports that Kletetschka co-authored.