Why wait for a million-dollar ticket to Mars when you can have an inter-planetary experience a la Oscar-nominated blockbuster “The Martian” right here in India?
One simply needs to head over to the western Indian state of Gujarat to glimpse the remarkable rocky landscape similar to the Red planet.
A replica or “terrestrial analogue” of the Martian surface has been discovered in the state, thanks to Indian scientists from the Space Applications Center (SAC-ISRO) in Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) and the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad.
The team identified and documented the presence of a rare mineral jarosite through spectroscopic studies in Matanumadh area (86 km northwest of Bhuj) in Kutch district of Gujarat, a finding which links it to the Red planet. This work is part of a programme initiated by SAC-ISRO under its Mars mission.
The presence of the rare mineral was reported from various parts of the surface of the Red planet by NASA’s Mars exploration rover, Opportunity, in 2004. Since then, other rovers have detected jarosite at several localities on the planet’s surface.
The fact that jarosite is found in limited natural terrestrial environments means “extreme and unusual” conditions are required for its formation and stabilisation.
In fact, as a clone, the Indian site more closely resembles the Martian surface than known Western Australian jarosite localities, note the researchers in the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets in March.
NASA is working to send humans to Mars in the 2030s, but there are many milestones to accomplish to ensure that astronauts come back to the Earth safely, the space agency says on its website.
Last year, NASA scientists found evidence of flowing water on Mars.
Mitra envisages if the local tourism authorities can educate the locals about the site and its link to Mars, then it could also benefit regional tourism.
Most importantly, in addition to sending up sophisticated robots and probes on Mars to study it, investigations could be carried out right at the Matanumadh Formation at a reduced cost, to understand what transpired on Mars a few billion years ago, according to Gupta.
(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)
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