Mystery of Mysterious Stripes on Mars Solved

It is widely accepted that the Red Planet was warmer and wetter in the past, and therefore likely to have contained liquid water. However, today, Mars' low temperature and atmospheric pressure make it extremely unlikely that water will exist on its surface.

Dark lines observed on crater walls and slopes on Mars since the 1970s have long been explained by the idea that water was flowing. However, new research published in the journal Nature Communications provides strong evidence against this view.

More than 86,000 satellite images were analyzed as part of the research. The team, which also included scientists from Brown University and the University of Bern, detected approximately 500,000 slope lines in these images and developed a special machine learning algorithm to analyze this data.

The analysis determined that these slope lines were not formed by water or ice, but by fine dust grains accumulating on sloping surfaces and then being pushed down by external forces such as wind, micrometeorite impacts or earthquakes.

According to the Independent, Adomas Valantinas from Brown University said, “Ultrafine dust can behave like liquid when disturbed. The low gravity on Mars enhances this effect, and the resulting patterns appear to be water-like.” In other words, these stripes resemble the natural patterns that form when dry sand is poured and flows like liquid.

The study also emphasized that these shapes have nothing to do with temperature increase, humidity or orientation, but rather with wind speed and dust accumulation. This indicates a more arid origin for these formations.

However, scientists point out that these findings do not necessarily indicate that there is no liquid water on Mars. "Everything is connected to the search for habitability and life. If these lines are not related to water, then we need to direct our attention to more promising areas," said Valentin Bickel of the University of Bern.