New substantial evidence for the presence of extensive liquid water at the Martian surface

A new research led by former Carnegie postdoctoral scientist Francis McCubbin, was performed by Carnegie Institution investigator Erik Hauri and team and is published in the journal Geology.

They analyzed two shergottite meteorites, using a new method that can quantify water in apatite using a technology called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS):

Based on the mineral's water content, the scientists estimated that the Martian mantle source from which the rocks were derived contained between 70 and 300 parts per million (ppm) water. For comparison, the upper mantle on Earth contains approximately 50-300 ppm water.

The data raise the possibility that Mars could have sustained life

The results suggest that water was incorporated during the formation of Mars and that the planet was able to store water in its interior during the planet's differentiation.

McCubbin concluded, "Not only does this study explain how Mars got its water, it provides a mechanism for hydrogen storage in all the terrestrial planets at the time of their formation."

Read the whole here: Science Daily

Original source: Carnegie Institution for Science

Next Mars mission in August (Curiosity) will possibly shed some light to this discovery, maybe finding some traces of a very old life form?

Originally posted by elevenaugust
A new research led by former Carnegie postdoctoral scientist Francis McCubbin, was performed by Carnegie Institution investigator Erik Hauri and team and is published in the journal Geology.

They analyzed two shergottite meteorites, using a new method that can quantify water in apatite using a technology called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS):

Based on the mineral's water content, the scientists estimated that the Martian mantle source from which the rocks were derived contained between 70 and 300 parts per million (ppm) water. For comparison, the upper mantle on Earth contains approximately 50-300 ppm water.

The data raise the possibility that Mars could have sustained life

The results suggest that water was incorporated during the formation of Mars and that the planet was able to store water in its interior during the planet's differentiation.

McCubbin concluded, "Not only does this study explain how Mars got its water, it provides a mechanism for hydrogen storage in all the terrestrial planets at the time of their formation."

Read the whole here: Science Daily

Original source: Carnegie Institution for Science

Next Mars mission in August (Curiosity) will possibly shed some light to this discovery, maybe finding some traces of a very old life form?

edit on 22-6-2012 by elevenaugust because: (no reason given)

edit on 22-6-2012 by elevenaugust because: (no reason given)

Water can not exist in liquid state ON the surface of Mars due to the lack of atmosphere. You can not change the dynamics of this law. Crystalline? Yes. Liquid? No.

Your title is very misleading and disingenuous.

Mars is apparently quite dead at the moment, though. If someone was able to find bacteria or bacterial fossils on or from Mars, it might be interesting for a while, but eventually it would just be shuffled off to academia to be numbly studied there.

Your headline is misleading. There is nothing in the evidence cited in the article regarding water on the Martian surface.

What the new evidence provides is a source for the water which is thought to have existed on the Martian surface billions of years ago. That source being water which was present when Mars originally formed.

Most people who frequent the space forum know life exists on Mars anyway,Sand Maries and the famous entity pictured looking over its shoulder have proved this

reply to post by elevenaugust


Your sources say the water is in the interior, not the surface, your title needs to be changed as it is categoricaly untrue.

Someone said "Water" on Mars?

Blue color added.

I agree with the previous poster. LIQUID WATER can not exist for any significant amount of time on the Martian surface due to the lack of atmospheric pressure. Yes I believe it does occur briefly probably more often than we know but as a standard it just doesn't fit with the laws of physics. I true.y believe in microbial life on mars and maybe more complex life forms in the interior ( this is a conspicary website lol) but in all honesty I can say with about 99% surety that there is microbial life on our red friend. Can I prove it? No. Will it be proven YES!

reply to post by swampcricket


If life ever existed (which I doubt), it almost certainly does not now. Europa and Titan are more likely places.

OP --

The idea that Mars probably once had water has been known for quite sometime now. NASA is sending a rover to an area of Mars right now that they are relatively confident was once wet.

NASA's new rover 'Curiosity" is heading to Gale Crater, which is known by NASA scientists to have extensive clay deposits, and as far as anyone knows, Clay needs standing water to form. The Clay alone is a very good indication that (at least that area of Mars) had standing water at some time.

NASA article about Curiosity's Landing site in Gale Crater:
www.nasa.gov...

The portion of the crater where Curiosity will land has an alluvial fan likely formed by water-carried sediments. The layers at the base of the mountain contain clays and sulfates, both known to form in water.

One great thing about curiosity's landing site is that there are cliff faces that should have exposed rock strata. NASA is hopeful that these strata will give the Geological history of that part of mars, including how wet it was and when.


Last year, the rover Opportunity also found excellent evidence that water once flowed on Mars. It found deposits of gypsum, which form in environments where water seeps through cracks.

NASA article on Opportunity and gypsum:
www.nasa.gov...

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding of the history of wet environments on Mars.

"This tells a slam-dunk story that water flowed through underground fractures in the rock," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for Opportunity. "This stuff is a fairly pure chemical deposit that formed in place right where we see it. That can't be said for other gypsum seen on Mars or for other water-related minerals Opportunity has found. It's not uncommon on Earth, but on Mars, it's the kind of thing that makes geologists jump out of their chairs."

Water is very common in the Solar system -- The Saturn system has water, along the Jupiter system, Earth and Venus all having water. It would be odd for the water that almost definitely existed in the primordial disk that formed our solar system to have skipped over Mars completely. If Mars never had water, then that would be a scientific oddity.

Mars does have an atmosphere, just not a similar atmosphere to Earth. The atmospheric pressure ranges from 30 to 600 pascals, where the Earth's atmosphere averages about 101.3 kilopascals, so the pressure is much, much less. It does extend further than Earth's atmosphere, about 11 km as opposed to Earth's 7 km.

It consists of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane, for a mean molar mass of 43.34 g/mol. Although it would not be inhabital for us, it could well be inhabital for plant life if the temperature remained constant instead of fluctuating to the extent that it does. It can go from -225 degrees F to 81 degrees F depending on the "season". During the warm months, the water could flow freely, but would quickly freeze again during the colder periods.

Any life form that still (or already) exists there would have to be an extremophile in order to survive the very cold temperatures, although I do wonder about subterranian caverns and the possibility of the temperatures being more stable due to geothermal properties.

The arguments for the possibility of life continue to grow in feasibility and number. This doesn't mean "intelligent life" at all, but life, nonetheless, with the possibility that intelligent life could have existed at some point or could possibly exist in the future with a change in the composition of the atmosphere, particularly more ozone that could regulate the temperature extremes.

Oxygen and Nitrogen are the key to our own atmosphere. If a method could be found to extract the oxygen and nitrogen molecules from the surface during the warmer months, allowing them to incorporate into the atmosphere, a balance could be reached that could produce an atmosphere that would be more condusive to life as well as regulate the temperature extremes.

reply to post by PurpleChiten


You seem to be the voice of reason amid the chorus being quickly sung out by 'establishment darlings' on this topic.

Thanks for your informative post. I personally believe we are being lied to, on a grand scale, concerning the presence of liquid water on Mars, as well as multiple other aspects of the dynamics of our solar neighbourhood.

However, I will be flamed on an even grander scale for stating such, so I bid you adieu!

reply to post by PurpleChiten


I dont think many of us disagree with what you say. The problem was the OP specifies water on the surface, which is untrue. Underground we know there is water. We also know it is unlikely there is life on the surface due to the extreme conditions. Also no one here is arguing that Mars does have an atmosphere, its just 1% or less as dense as Earths. I stand by my assertion life on Mars is unlikely, and Titan and Europa are far more suitable candidates. Maybe once we learn more about the interior of Mars my opinion will change, I can only base my beliefs on current knowledge, not on what might be true.

Originally posted by FlyInTheOintment
reply to post by PurpleChiten

 

You seem to be the voice of reason amid the chorus being quickly sung out by 'establishment darlings' on this topic.

Thanks for your informative post. I personally believe we are being lied to, on a grand scale, concerning the presence of liquid water on Mars, as well as multiple other aspects of the dynamics of our solar neighbourhood.

However, I will be flamed on an even grander scale for stating such, so I bid you adieu!

Can you show where the "establishment darlings" have sung a chorus that was in error? Thanks.