This graph shows how the amount of water in the atmosphere of Mars varies depending on the tuna. The proportion of water spikes during global and regional dust storms, which occur during southern spring and summer. Credit: University of Arizona / Shane Stone / NASA Goddard / Dan Gallagher
Scientists using equipment in ships NASANo. Mars Atmospheric and unstable evolution or MAVEN, the spacecraft has discovered that the water vapor near the surface of the red planet is higher than anyone in the atmosphere is more than anyone can expect. There, they are easily destroyed by electrically charged gas particles – or ions, and lost in space.
Researchers say the phenomenon they uncovered is one of several factors that have caused Mars to lose billions of years to the equivalent of a global ocean hundreds of feet deep (or hundreds of meters) deep. Report their discovery to the Journal on November 13, 2020 ScienceMars continues to lose water today, as evaporation reaches higher altitudes after being submitted from frozen polar caps during the warmer seasons, the researchers said.
“We were all surprised to find so much water in the atmosphere,” said Shane W. Stone, a doctoral student in lunar and planetary science at the University of Arizona’s Tucson University. “The criteria we used could only come from the MN van because it was climbing in the atmosphere of Mars, above the Earth’s surface.”
To find them, Stone and his colleagues relied on data from Maryland’s Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS), which was developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The mass spectrometer inhales air and separates the ions contained by its mass, thus helping scientists identify them.
Stone and his team have been exploring the abundance of water ions on Mars for more than two Martin years. In doing so, they determined that the amount of water vapor near the top of the atmosphere is about 93 miles or 150 kilometers above the surface during the summer in the Southern Hemisphere. During this time, the planet is closest to the sun, and therefore warmer, and dust storms are more likely to occur.
This picture shows that during a regional or global dust storm, Mars is usually on Mars. Credit: NASA / Goddard / CI Lab / Adriana Maric Gutierrez / Christopher Kim
The strong winds associated with summer temperatures and dust storms help water vapor reach the upper parts of the atmosphere, where it can easily split into its component oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen and oxygen then escape into space. Previously, scientists believed that water vapor was trapped near the surface of Mars just like Earth.
“Whatever it makes up to the upper part of the atmosphere is destroyed on Mars or Earth,” Stone said. Because this is the part of the atmosphere that is exposed to the full power of the sun. ”
Researchers measured 20 times more water than usual in two days in June 2018, when a severe global dust storm enveloped Mars (which knocked NASA’s Opportunity Rover out of commission). Stone and his colleagues estimated that as much water was lost in 45 days on Tuesday during this hurricane as it does throughout the Martin year, which lasts two years on Earth.
“We have shown that dust storms disrupt the water cycle on Mars and push more water molecules into the atmosphere, where chemical reactions can release their hydrogen atoms, which are then lost in space,” said Paul Mahaf, director of the Solar System Exploration Department. Was. At NASA Goddard and Chief Investigator of NGIMS.
Other scientists have also discovered that Mutian dust storms can stimulate water vapor from the surface. But no one has yet realized that water will reach the top of that atmosphere. This region of the atmosphere has abundant ions that can break down water molecules 10 times faster than destroying them at lower levels.
“The special thing about this discovery is that it provides us with a new way that we don’t think existed for water to escape the atmosphere of Mars,” said Mehdi Benna, a planetary scientist at Gwadard and co-investigator of Maven’s NGIMS instrument. “It will change our rapid estimate of how fast water is flowing out today and how fast it has flowed out in the past.”
Reference: Shane W. Stone, Roger V. Yale, Mehdi Benna, Daniel Y Low, Meredith K. 13 Tuesday 2020 by Elrod and Paul R. Mahafi, “Hydrogen escape from Mars is driven by seasonal and dust storm transport of water.” , Science.
DOI: 10.1126 / Science.ba 5229
This research was funded by the MAVEN Mission. Maven’s chief investigator is based in atmospheric and space physics for the University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory, and NASA’s Goddard Maven manages the project.
