Mars Curiosity rover (Photo : Reuters)
Scientists have found the most concrete evidence that "red planet" Mars has water.
With the data gathered by Mar's Curiosity rover, they were able to determine that water vapor actually condense in liquid form during night times and evaporate almost immediately during the day.
The research, which is published in the Nature Geoscience journal, showed that the planet's soil is abundant in salt, contributing to the reduction of its water's melting point. As a result, water tends to pool in liquid form, regardless of its below zero temperatures.
Javier Martin-Torres, lead planetary scientists from the Sweden Lulea Technical University and Spain Andalusian Earth Sciences Institute, said despite the hypotheses and laboratory studies that support this possibility before, this is the first time that they have found evidence that "conditions are right for the formation of liquid water on Mars," Sen reported.
Satellite data have previously provided indirect liquid water evidences; however, the new finding has modified the understanding on Mar's hydrologic cycle. It presented data that Mars is still an unlikely place for living organisms to thrive, considering its cold conditions.
Under normal conditions, Mars is way too cold for water to pool in its liquid phase. Though scientists have detected evidences of water vapor being absorbed from the atmosphere of Mars into its soil, in as early as 1970 through the Viking program, the fact that it can condense in liquid form has not been established until today.
Richard Zurek of NASA who was part of the Viking project, said, "We were thinking of the exchange as water vapor going into the surface and being absorbed, or freezing as ice."
