Water that once existed on Mars slowly leaked into space, or at least that’s the current theory. A new paper disputes this assumption and offers an alternative scenario in which the Red Planet has stuck to much of its ancient waters – we just can not see it.
According to optimism, an unexpectedly large amount of water is hidden in minerals buried under the Mars crust research published in Science. Data presented in the new paper, along with Eva Scheller, a graduate student at Caltech, indicate that 30% to 99% of the original water on Mars has been preserved.
At the same time, the authors say that the prevailing theory about Mars water flowing into space – a consequence of the planet’s low gravity – has not been completely sniffed out. and that their new theory solves a key shortcoming quite nice. These results were presented on March 15 during the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
We know that the Red Planet was once covered flowing water, as can be seen from the remains of deep ocean basins, more, rushing rivers, and even huge tsunamis. The total volume of water previously used on the ancient Martian surface is estimated at half the total volume of the Atlantic Ocean, which is scarce a small amount. This was the case billions of years ago, but most of this water seems to have disappeared, and the small amount that remains has fallen back into the ice caps and (possibly) the strange underground reservoir.
But as Scheller explained in a NASA statement, the atmospheric escape of Marswater “does not explain the data we have about how much water actually ever existed on Mars.”
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The key to any study of the history of water on Mars is the observed ratio of deuterium to hydrogen (D / H), which is commonly used to reinforce atmospheric escape theory. Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen, but a very small amount of hydrogen atoms exists as deuterium, also known as ‘heavy hydrogen’ due to an extra neutron in the atomic nucleus, in addition to the standard proton. Normal hydrogen, which makes up 99.98% of all hydrogen, can easily escape the low Martian gravity and leach into space, but this is not the case for deuterium. Consequently, Mars must show a surplus to deuterium what he does.
The problem is that the rate of atmospheric water leakage is currently too low, according to the study authors, and this process cannot exclusively take into account all the historical water loss through the atmosphere. Instead, Scheller and her colleagues argue that, in addition to a slight leakage through the atmosphere, Mars’ ancient waters were trapped in minerals in the Earth’s crust. According to the article, these two mechanisms may explain the observed D / H ratio and the missing water.
Evidence for this hypothesis was obtained from NASA’s Planetary Data System, which serves as a general data repository for previous missions. In this case, the authors analyzed Mars-specific data collected by telescopes, satellites and robbers to reconstruct historical water volumes – whether in liquid, vapor or ice form – on Mars, and to study the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere and crust.
By performing simulations under different conditions, the authors showed that Mars lost much of its water during its Noah period, about 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago, and that 30% to 99% of this water is buried under the crust, with the rest of the space lost, in a finding that respects the current observing D / H ratio.
The process responsible for the disappearance of Mars’ water is known as cross-hydration, and it is not as exotic as it sounds. Chemical weathering caused by the mixing of rocks with water produces clay and other soupy minerals. It also happens on Earth on Mars, as evidenced by ground observations made by NASA’s Curiosity Rover. However, the fate of these materials played out differently on the two planets.
“The hydrated materials on our own planet are constantly being recycled by plate tectonics,” Michael Meyer, chief scientist of NASA’s Mars exploration program, said in the NASA release. “Because we have measurements from several spacecraft, we can see that Mars is not recovering, and therefore water is now trapped in the crust or lost in space,” said Meyer, who is not directly involved in the new research..
Kevin Olsen, a fellow at Oxford University and an expert on the Martian atmosphere, said the new article makes ‘fat’”But“ new and intriguingAssumptions.
‘Our basis for [making inferences] about the ancient climate of Mars comes from comparison with the earth, and one aspect of the evolution of Mars that differs from the earth is the silence of its volcanoes, the largest in the solar system, “wrote Olsen, who is not connected to the new study, in an email. ‘Per modelhow large the exchange between water reservoirs near the surface and those in the rocky crust is, they opened up very probable scenarios where Mars was once much wetter, but as it is today. ‘
“This is a very interesting article that combines many different mechanisms and models to study the fate of water on Mars,” said Geronimo Villanueva, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. also not involved in the new study, said in an email. “Given the high degree of uncertainty that exists over some model parameters – the range of possible scenarios is large – yet it yields important testable predictions that can be followed in the future.”
Villanueva said the new article would help with future investigations into the history of water on the Red Planet.
Fortunately, the Perseverance may soon contribute to this line of research. NASA’s new Mars explorer will start his scientific work soon in Jezero Crater, the site of a former lake and river delta. Evidence to reinforce this new theory may exist within this ancient expanse, which Perseverance will explore over the next two years.
For future Mars colonists, this is good and bad news. This is good news, because Mars still has a lot of water, at least in theory. The bad news is that this water, if it exists, is trapped in hydrated materials like clay. Living on Mars would tough enough, but the development of the infrastructure to extract, extract and clean the water from these mineral sounds woes complicated and expensive.
To quote from the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, it can be a classic case of: “Water, water, everywhere, and all the planks have shrunk; Water, water, everywhere, also no drop to do not drink. ”