NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to Reveal Secrets and techniques of the Pink Planet

The planet Mars has fascinated scientists for over a century. Today, it’s a frigid desert world with a carbon dioxide environment 100 instances thinner than Earth’s. But proof means that within the early historical past of our photo voltaic system, Mars had an ocean’s price of water. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will research Mars to be taught extra concerning the planet’s transition from moist to dry, and what which means about its previous and current habitability.

Mars shall be focused as a part of a Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) challenge led by Heidi Hammel, a planetary astronomer and govt vp of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in Washington, D.C. The GTO program supplies devoted time to the scientists who’ve labored with NASA to craft the science capabilities of Webb all through its improvement. Hammel was chosen by NASA as a JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist in 2003. Mars shall be seen to Webb from May to September 2020 throughout its first yr of operations, often known as Cycle 1.

“Webb will return extremely interesting measurements of chemistry in the Martian atmosphere,” famous Hammel. “And most importantly, these Mars data will be immediately available to the planetary community to enable them to plan even more detailed Mars observations with Webb in future cycles.”

“We are all looking forward to Webb’s observations of Mars. I just know they will be fantastic, with the potential for immediate scientific discoveries,” mentioned Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Mars has been visited by extra missions than every other planet in our photo voltaic system. It is at present orbited by six lively spacecraft, whereas two rovers trundle throughout its floor. Webb gives a number of capabilities that complement these up-close missions.

One key asset is Webb’s means to take a snapshot of the complete disk of Mars without delay. Orbiters, in distinction, take time to make a full map and due to this fact could be affected by day-to-day variability, whereas rovers can solely measure one location. Webb additionally advantages from wonderful spectral decision (the power to measure small variations in wavelengths of sunshine) and a scarcity of interfering environment that plagues ground-based measurements from Earth.

That mentioned, observing Mars with Webb won’t be straightforward. “Webb is designed to be able to detect extremely faint and distant targets, but Mars is bright and close,” defined Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Mars lead on the GTO challenge. As a consequence, the observations shall be rigorously designed to keep away from swamping Webb’s delicate devices with mild.

“Very importantly, observations of Mars will also test Webb’s capabilities in tracking moving objects across the sky, which is of key importance when investigating our solar system,” mentioned Stefanie Milam at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. who’s coordinating the photo voltaic system program with Webb.

Much of the water Mars as soon as held was misplaced over time because of ultraviolet mild from the Sun breaking up water molecules. Researchers can estimate how a lot water vanished by measuring the abundance of two barely completely different types of water in Mars’ environment – regular water (H2O) and heavy water (HDO), through which one hydrogen atom is changed by naturally occurring deuterium. The preferential escape of lighter hydrogen over time would then result in a skewed ratio of H2O to HDO on Mars, indicative of how a lot water has escaped into area. Webb will have the ability to measure this ratio at completely different instances, seasons and places.

“With Webb, we can obtain a real and accurate measurement of the ratio of H2O to HDO across Mars, permitting us to determine how much water was truly lost. We also can determine how water is exchanged between polar ice, the atmosphere, and the soil,” mentioned Villanueva.

Although a lot of the water on Mars is locked up in ice, the likelihood stays that some liquid water may exist in underground aquifers. These potential reservoirs may even host life. This intriguing thought obtained a lift in 2003, when astronomers detected methane within the Martian environment. Methane may very well be generated by micro organism, though it may additionally come from geological processes. Data from Webb may present new clues to the origin of those methane plumes.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier infrared area observatory of the following decade. Webb will resolve mysteries of our photo voltaic system, look past to distant worlds round different stars, and probe the mysterious buildings and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is a global program led by NASA with its companions, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).