in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University.

Her latest book, 'Why Am I Taller?', is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. She was contributing writer for (opens in new tab) for 10 years before joining full-time, freelancing since 2012. Įlizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. Follow us on Twitter Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) and on Facebook (opens in new tab). 'If we are going to invest in exploring for life in Martian lakes, it would make sense to think deeply of which lakes, and why,' added Michalski, as trying to search hundreds of lakes or more 'is not obviously set up for success.'įollow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter (opens in new tab). These are just a few of the many things to consider in the search for life on Mars. So it's unclear how friendly those ancient Martian water bodies would have been for photosynthetic life. That fact, combined with Mars' greater distance from the sun compared with Earth and the likely murkiness of its waters, suggests that Red Planet paleolakes soaked up just 30% of the solar energy that Earth lakes currently get. The sun was fainter about four billion years ago, when these paleolakes existed. 'We tend to think of lakes on Mars as being hyper salty like desert playas, but the data do not support that view - they were probably fresh water,' he noted.

Mars may have dozens of lakes beneath its south pole Perseverance rover confirms existence of ancient Mars lake and river delta 'The lakes represent only a small fraction of that time, and they might not have strong implications for life,' Michalski said. They likely formed during Mars' Noachian period, which lasted about 400 million years. Each individual lake probably survived for just 10,000 to 100,000 years, he said. While water is a crucial ingredient for life as we know, Michalski cautioned against drawing a direct link between the unfound lakes and Martian life. 'In other words, we have not detected the small lakes on Mars yet.' 'Mars has about 500 known paleolakes, but >70% of ancient Martian lakes have so far not been detected (by comparison to statistics for Earth),' study lead author Joseph Michalski, an associate professor of Earth sciences at the University of Hong Kong, told via email. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS) This mosaic, composed of multiple images, shows a rocky outcrop called 'Wildcat Ridge,' where the Perseverance rover is performing work to better understand ancient conditions on Mars.

Towermadness 2 ancient lake