Apparently, Mars once spewed water.
Today, an aerial view of the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater (pictured below) reveals that water once poured into the basin, leaving traces of rivers, streams and large lakes. About three billion years ago, vast oceans may have also covered large areas of the world. Back then, Mars wasn’t just rusty red; it was red. Large areas are blue.
But there is still a big problem: How much water did Mars once have?
In new research, planetary scientists have identified a possible range. Among them, the proportion of water on Mars is comparable to that of the ocean-covered Earth.
“This suggests Mars once had a lot of water,” said Bruce Jakosky, a planetary geologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder and co-author of the new study published in the journal Mars . Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, tells Mashable. Jakoski is also the principal investigator of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, the spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet.
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To find the answer, researchers focused on one key question: Where did the water go? They assessed how much was lost to space; how much was absorbed into Martian rocks and minerals; how much was trapped in polar ice caps? How much is preserved by buried ice from ancient oceans; and how much water may have flowed into the Martian crust.
“This suggests Mars once had a lot of water.”
The loss of water into space is a considerable loss area, or “sink”. Mars gradually lost its insulating atmosphere, in part due to the effects of solar radiation. Eventually, Mars’ once-thick atmosphere disappeared and vast amounts of water escaped. Without this insulating blanket, the earth would dry out.
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Today, Mars is 1,000 It is several times drier than the driest desert on earth.
Satellite view of Jezero Crater’s dry river delta as seen from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Different colors show different sediments, such as carbonates.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL
Conceptual description of the vast Kasei Valles region on Mars approximately 3 billion years ago.
Image credit: F. Schmidt / NASA / USGS / ESA / DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
The researchers concluded that if all this water were spread evenly across the Martian surface like a giant ocean, Mars would lose 380 to 1,970 meters (1,247 to 6,463 feet) of water, a measurement known as the “global equivalent” layer”. (Previous studies that used different methods to measure Mars’ past water content found less water.) One rather large unknown, and one of the reasons for the wide range, is how much water currently fills the pores of Mars’ crust. of uncertainty. It’s not clear yet, but it may have been huge, up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) high.
To help understand or imagine how much water Mars once had, we can use our water-covered planet as a reference. If we collect all the water on Earth and in the crust and scale it to the size and mass of Mars, the global water layer on Mars is about 1,400 meters (4,593 feet) thick.
In short, Mars may have once had as much water as Earth. Maybe less, or even more. It’s unlikely that all this water was on the surface at the same time, Jakoski said, “but at some point in Mars’ history it was.”
“Having this much water would make Mars habitable.”
Even so, these evidences of massive water loss, combined with the Martian landscape full of dry gullies and evidence of past rivers and lakes, suggest that early Mars was filled with water. There is little evidence that microbial life ever existed on Mars, but all that water likely created an environment suitable for primitive organisms to evolve.
“Water is an essential ingredient for sustaining life,” explains Jakoski. “Having this much water would make Mars habitable.”
Mars missions, like NASA’s Perseverance rover, are continuing to search this remote desert for clues about past life — like certain molecules or cellular fragments that could give away secrets.
“We’re on the right path to finding evidence of life,” Jakoski said.
This story has been updated with more information about Mars’ water-rich past.