One of the most important researches on which the last space missions have focused is that of water on Mars: here is what the latest studies say.
The search for water on Mars in a liquid state is one of the great challenges of modern space research, and there are many studies in this direction. The importance of this variable depends on the fact that water allows the survival of life forms.
So the missions of recent years have focused precisely in this direction. In short, that of water on Mars is a discovery that would bring great developments in the search for life forms and especially in the future hypothesis of a colonization of the planet.
Is there water on Mars?
So we can say that there is water on Mars? Precisely in order to verify the presence of the precious liquid on the red planet has been addressed the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which has allowed to recognize the presence of a mineral, pencils, which normally on Earth is formed when there is the presence of water. Not only that, have been discovered sedimentary structures to be formed had to be a liquid.
In short, it was found that in the past liquid water on Mars was present. So it is a possible condition, starting from the study of the temperature/pressure interval: there are in fact large areas of the planet where the interval that allows the presence of liquid water is found. In addition, some probes have photographed the evidence that to date the water comes out of some cracks in the ground.
Where is the water on Mars?"
Amidst the many studies carried out in recent years on this issue, a new hypothesis is also coming forward. In fact, the water that billions of years ago was abundant on the surface of the planet, would not have disappeared, but would simply be hidden in its rocks. A research published in the journal Science, carried out by Californian researchers, has put together the data collected in recent decades by probes and robots sent on the Martian soil.
The hypothesis on the presence of water on Mars is based on the fact that Mars is a planet very similar to Earth, and its conformation testifies how over 3 billion years ago, with lakes oceans and rivers, there could be some form of life. Then, about 1 and a half billion years ago, there was a turbulent phase that changed the atmosphere, making it arid and cold.
The latest studies
The analysis of the chemical composition of meteorites from the red planet in different eras has made it possible to study the traces of water on Mars in different eras. Certainly when the planet's atmosphere was heavier, the pressure allowed the presence of liquid water on Mars.
Now, according to calculations made by researchers as part of the Abiboo project, the large mass of water that was present at the time on the planet could not have been depleted in 4 billion years. Much of it would be trapped in the rock present on the planet, while only part seems to have evaporated into the atmosphere. Of course, it is therefore difficult, now, to determine the amount of the presence of water on Mars, or rather, how much is left. The new scientific model on which the scientists are based, if reliable, will allow to rewrite the history of the evolution of the planet.
The presence of water on Mars in different ages
Undoubtedly, from the morphological conformation is possible to observe how it once hosted large masses of water: many are in fact the beds of rivers now dry, lakes and seas, which obviously when they were full hosted significant amounts of water. Moreover, the northern hemisphere seems to host even the oceans.
Today there are probably salty aquifers and lakes in the subsoil, while there is the presence of frozen water in the polar caps and also under the surface of the planet. In short, we can say that there is water on Mars, although not as we are accustomed to understand it on Earth.
The discovery of a lake
In fact, among the discoveries made by space researchers, there is also that of a lake, located at the south pole of the planet is covered by a layer of ice 1.5 km thick. The size is about twenty kilometers in diameter, and to allow him to remain liquid is the pressure of the overlying ice.
To discover it was a probe of the European space agency in 2018, and the work of a group of young scientists. A very important discovery, which confirms the presence of traces of water on Mars, but especially because it seems that there are other similar lakes in the subsurface. And this brings scientists closer to hypothesize the possibility of life forms on the red planet.