The water that existed on Mars slowly seeped into space, or at least that is the current theory. A new document challenges this assumption, offering an alternative scenario in which the red planet has clung to much of its ancient waters, we simply cannot see.
According to New, an unexpectedly large amount of water hides inside the minerals buried beneath the Martian crust research published in Science. The data presented in the new article, co-authored by Eva Scheller, a Caltech graduate student, suggests that 30% to 99% of Mars ’original water has been conserved.
At the same time, the authors say that the current theory about Martian water escaping into space — a consequence of the low gravity of the planet — is not up to par with tobacco. and that his new theory solves a key deficiency pretty well. These results were presented on March 15 at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
We know the red planet was covered flowing water, as evidenced by the remains of deep ocean basins, lakes, precipitating rivers, even wonderfully huge tsunamis. The total volume of water that existed in the network ancient Martian surface is dear at half the total volume of the Atlantic Ocean, which is difficult a trivial amount. Such was the case billions of years ago, but most of this water seems to have disappeared and the small amount left has receded into the polar caps and (possibly) the occasional underground reservoir.
But as Scheller explained at a NASA statement, the atmospheric leak of Martian water “does not fully explain the data we have on the amount of water that once 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 typically used to reinforce the theory of atmospheric leakage. Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, but there are a very small number of hydrogen atoms as deuterium, also known as “heavy hydrogen” due to an additional neutron inside the atomic nucleus, in addition of the standard proton. Normal hydrogen, which accounts for 99.98% of all hydrogen, can easily escape low Martian gravity and seep into space, but this is not the case with deuterium. Consequently, Mars should present a surplus of deuterium, which it does.
The problem is that, according to the study, the current rate of water leaks into the atmosphere is too low authors, and this process cannot exclusively explain all this historical loss of water in the atmosphere. Instead, Scheller and colleagues argue that in addition to some slight leaks into the atmosphere, ancient Mars water was trapped in minerals within the planet’s crust. Together, these two mechanisms can explain the observed D / H ratio and the missing water, according to the document.
Evidence for this hypothesis was drawn 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 rovers in order. to reconstruct the historical volumes of water — whether in liquid, vapor, or ice form — on Mars and to study the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the Martian crust.
Using simulations in various conditions, the authors showed that Mars lost much of its water during its Noachian period, about 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago, and that between 30% and 99% of this ancient water was buried under the crust. the rest is lost with space, in a finding that respects the D / H ratio currently observed.
The process responsible for the disappearance of water from Mars is known as hydration of the crust and is not as exotic as it seems. Chemical weathering caused by mixing rocks with water produces clays and other wet minerals. This also happens on Earth on Mars, as evidenced by the earth observations made by NASA’s Curiosity rover. The fate of these materials, however, played out differently on the two planets.
“Hydrated materials from our own planet are being continuously recycled using plate tectonics,” said Michael Meyer, senior scientist at NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. “Because we have measurements from several spacecraft, we can see that Mars is not being recycled and therefore water is locked in the crust or lost in space,” said Meyer, who is not directly involved. in the new research.
Kevin Olsen, a member of Oxford University and an expert on the Martian atmosphere, said the new paper is “bold””But“ new and intriguing”Assumptions.
“Our base for [making inferences] on the ancient climate of Mars comes from the 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 affiliated with the new study, in an email. “By modelhow great is the exchange between the water tanks near the surface and those of the rocky crust, have opened up many plausible scenarios in which Mars was once much wetter, but it turned out as we see it today. ”
“This is a very interesting document, which combines many different mechanisms and models to explore the fate of water on Mars,” said Geronimo Villanueva, a planetary scientist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. too not involved with the new study, he said in an email. “Given the high degree of uncertainty that exists in some of the model’s parameters (the range of possible scenarios is large), it is important to present contrasting predictions that can be pursued in the future.”
Villanueva said the new document will help future research on the history of water on the red planet.
Fortunately, the Rover of perseverance could soon contribute to this line of research. New NASA Martian Explorer he will soon begin his scientific work inside Jezero Crater, place where there was an ancient lake and river delta. There could be evidence to reinforce this new theory within this old extension, which Perseverance will explore over the next two years.
For future Martian settlers, this is good and bad news. That’s good news because, hey, Mars still has a lot of water, at least in theory. The bad news is that this water, if it exists, is enclosed in hydrated materials such as clay. Living on Mars would be strong enough, but the development of the infrastructure to extract, extract and clean the water extracted from these minerals sounds wild complicated and expensive.
To quote from the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” it could be a classic case of, “Water, water, everywhere, and all the tables were reduced; Water, water, anywhere, not a drop to drink.”