CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -There’s evidence of some lava flows on Olympus Mons that date back to only a few million years ago, but these are small-scale events and likely sporadic. By three or so billion years ago, the era of active volcano construction on Mars was over.

Detailed explanation-2: -Mars today has no active volcanoes. Much of the heat stored inside the planet when it formed has been lost, and the outer crust of Mars is too thick to allow molten rock from deep below to reach the surface.

Detailed explanation-3: -NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found the first definitive detections of carbon-dioxide snow clouds, making Mars the only body in the solar system known to host such unusual winter weather. The Red Planet also causes water-ice snow to fall from the clouds.

Detailed explanation-4: -The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet’s proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars.

Detailed explanation-5: -Liquid surface water is absent due to the cold temperature and thin atmosphere, but Mars is nonetheless covered with geologic clues to a warmer, wetter past: alluvial fans, canyons, and dry basins all point to a period in Martian history when surface water flowed across the planet.