Three Martian meteorites discovered on Earth show that Mars could hide a deposit of water or ice near its surface, according to an international scientific study released by NASA.
In a communique, the U.S. space agency said that, while controversy continues to surround the origin, abundance and history of water on Mars, this discovery helps dispel some questions about the Red Planet.
The question about where the "missing Martian water" went, however, has not yet been answered, though scientists continue to study the planet's historical changes to try to understand its evolution from a warm, humid climate to the cool, dry surface conditions of today.
Finding that missing water deposit could be the key to understanding the history of climate change on Mars and to discovering what the chances are that extraterrestrial life could flourish there.
Tomohiro Usui of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the lead author of the study, said that while other scientists are now considering the existence of a water reservoir on the Red Planet, this new research, reported in the learned journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, contributes some new ideas on the subject.
"There have been hints of a third planetary water reservoir in previous studies of Martian meteorites, but our new data require the existence of a water or ice reservoir that also appears to have exchanged with a diverse set of Martian samples," the scientist said.
"Until this study there was no direct evidence for this surface reservoir or interaction of it with rocks that have landed on Earth from the surface of Mars," Usui said.
Specifically, when studying the samples of Martian meteorites, scientists found water composed of hydrogen atoms that have an isotope ratio different from that of water in the Red Planet's mantle and in its present atmosphere.
That discovery prompted them to continue their research with meteorites of different ages to prove that ground water-ice could remain intact on the surface of Mars for a significant time span.
Space missions sent to the Red Planet have already indicated the possibility that ice could have altered the surface of Mars, but this study shows that it could hide water or ice under its rocks.
Taking part in the research project were scientists from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Lunar and Planetary Institute of Houston, the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, and NASA's Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division. EFE
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/1xyOyOF
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment