Billions of years ago, geological evidence suggests that the cold, dry red planet used to be much bluer. There was enough water collected in pools, lakes and deep oceans to have covered the entire planet in an ocean about 100 to 1,500 meters (330 to 4,920 feet) deep. This equates to about half of the Earth’s Atlantic Ocean.
The question is: what exactly happened to all that water?
Although some frozen water can be found in the Martian polar caps, scientists had previously suggested that water flowing to Mars escaped into space due to the low gravity of the planet. And while some water came out of Mars that way, a new study backed by NASA claims that a large amount of its water is still on the planet, trapped in its crust.
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“The atmospheric leak does not fully explain the data we have on how much water actually existed on Mars,” said Eva Scheller, lead author of the paper, which was published in the journal Science.
How the researchers loved the water Mart
Scheller and colleagues used data from rovers and orbiters on Mars, as well as analyzing meteorites to study how much water the red planet had. at first and how much he lost over time.
One way to do this is by analyzing the hydrogen levels in the planet’s atmosphere and rocks. Water is made up of both hydrogen and oxygen, but not all hydrogen atoms are created equal. Most of them have only one proton inside the nucleus of the atom, while the so-called “heavy” hydrogen has an additional neutron.
NASA / JPL
Regular hydrogen has little trouble escaping the gravity of a planet than the heavier deuterium. The deuterium / hydrogen (D / H) ratio in the planet’s atmosphere, therefore, reflects the loss of Martian water.
“Atmospheric escape clearly played a role in water loss, but findings from the last decade of Mars missions have pointed to the fact that there was this huge deposit of ancient hydrated minerals whose formation without it certainly decreased water availability over time, ”explains Bethany Ehlmann, a professor of planetary science and associate director of the Keck Institute for Space Studies.
When water and rock come together, a process called chemical weathering can occur forming clays and other water-containing hydrated minerals. as part of its mineral structure.
And while Mars still has between 30 and 99% of the water trapped in the crust, Scheller warns that it will not be easy for future astronauts to easily extract water for use.