Mars it was once a wet planet, the ancient gods beds rivers e i craters they still record traces of a period when water was abundant and flowed over the Martian surface. Today conditions are different, Mars is a cold and dry planet with a layer of underground ice. A new study ofAmerican association for the advancement of science, tried to explain where the Martian water went.
According to scientists, most of the Martian water has undergone a conversion process that continues today. Models of the process suggest that most of the water was converted to hydrogen at a low altitude before being transported to the upper atmosphere and being dispersed into space.
Analyzing the probe measurements Mars atmosphere and volatile evolution (Maven), as it flew through the planet’s upper atmosphere, however, the researchers found traces of water in the atmosphere at higher altitudes than they expected.
The results, published on Science, showed that water is transported directly into theupper atmosphere and converted there into atomic hydrogen through chemical reactions with atmospheric ions and then dispersed in space. This would be the process that gradually used up the planet’s water and continues to this day.
The event is more evident during sandstorms: “The transport of water in the upper atmosphere seems to be mediated by seasonal sandstorms that may have played a substantial role in the evolution of the Martian climate from its hot and humid state billions of years ago to the cold and dry planet we observe today” , we read in paper, in fact, the amount of water present in the atmosphere varies according to the seasons: increasing during sandstorms and reaching the maximum amount in the southern summer.
–
