Martian Atmosphere May Be Rich in Water

According to the results of a new scientific study, it would appear that the atmosphere surrounding the Red Planet may contain 100 times more water than originally calculated. The finding has considerable implications for climate models seeking to explain how Mars evolved over time.

The discovery could also lead to a recalculation of the amount of water that was available on the surface of Mars billions of years ago, before a massive climate change event drove H2O into underground ice sheets and open space.

The new study that led to this discovery was conducted using the Mars Express orbiter controlled by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Both probes have thus far sent back massive volumes of data on our neighboring planet.

During their latest investigations, the two determined that the Martian atmosphere is capable of undergoing a process called supersaturation. This phenomenon occurs when water particles in the air cling to dust and other particles in the air.

Thus far, researchers believed that all the excess water and moisture in the Martian air would have fallen to the ground as ice, given that not too much dust is available for binding in the Red Planet's air.

“Our observations show that as much as ten to a hundred times more water vapor can subsist in a state of supersaturation,” explains French researcher Franck Montmessin, who is based at the Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS).

Details of the investigation appear in the September 30 issue of the top journal Science. “Existence of supersaturation has profound consequences for the migration and further persistence of water everywhere on the planet,” Montmessin explains, quoted by Space.

The expert adds that the new discovery still does not change the most important tenant about Mars, which is that the planet lost most of its waters more than 1 billion years ago, when a massive climate change forces most of the water vapors into deep space.

The polar ice sheets are what remains of those massive volumes of water, which at one time covered large areas of the surface. Many researchers even say that an important ocean existed in the northern hemisphere. Lakes and deltas have been discovered all over the place.

“It is believed that Mars has lost a substantial fraction, if not a majority, of its primordial water by escape processes to space,” Montmessin concludes.