The lack of H2O on Mars is quite obvious since the red planet looks like a desert . We know that there ’s some brine menstruate near the equator and some piddle corrosion across the planet , but how dry is Mars really ?
An external team of investigator was able to estimate the weathering rates of Martian rock-and-roll due to piddle vaporization in the atmosphere . Their work , which is published in Nature Communication , usher that today it takes 10 to 10,000 times longer for rocks to be erode on Mars .
Since life as we bonk it postulate water to survive , these determination narrate us that if microbial life exist on Mars , it is unbelievable to be located near the control surface .
“ Evidence shows that more than 3 billion years ago Mars was wet and habitable . However , this a la mode enquiry reaffirms just how ironic the environment is today , ” allege Pb author Christian Schröder , from the University of Stirling in the UK , in astatement .
“ For biography to subsist in the area we investigated , it would need to find pockets far beneath the surface , located away from the sobriety and radiation present on the background . ”
meteorite experience in the Meridiani Planum . NASA / Opportunity
The team used data fromNASA ’s Opportunityrover to enquire the weathering of the Martian surface . They looked at meteorites in the Meridiani Planum , a Brobdingnagian manifest just south of the satellite ’s equator .
The study looked at the chemical erosion of meteorite . Thanks to the blue compactness of the Martian atmosphere , they can get to the land fairly intact , and based on their size of it and localisation it is possible to calculate when they fell onto the Red Planet .
The location is standardized in latitude and conditions to Gale Crater , which is being presently investigate by NASA ’s Curiosity bird of passage . Last yr , datum from Curiositysupported the idea that there was enough humidity for water to condense overnight .
“ But , as our data show , this moisture is much less than the wet present even in the driest places on Earth , ” added Dr Schröder .
