How does Mars lose its water, and what can this teach scientists about the planet’s ancient past when it had much more water? This is what a recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated the intricate processes responsible for Mars’ water escape. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the geological and geochemical processes that occur on the Red Planet and how it went from a potentially habitable world billions of years ago to a dry and barren world today.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data obtained from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency’s Emirates Mars Mission and combined it with computer models to estimate water profiles of the Martian atmosphere during the southern summer on Mars. The goal of the study was to ascertain how much water is lost to space based on recent studies that estimated water vapor rises in altitude from dust storms, resulting in being lost to space.
In the end, the researchers found that a small, short-lived dust storm in August 2023 resulted in significant water vapor rising into the Martian atmosphere during northern summer, with increased water vapor levels measured as high as 40 kilometers (25 miles). This was followed by measuring a significant amount of hydrogen escaping into space.
"These results add a vital new piece to the incomplete puzzle of how Mars has been losing its water over billions of years and shows that short but intense episodes can play a relevant role in the climate evolution of the Red Planet," said Dr. Shohei Aoki, who is a researcher at the University of Tokyo and Tohoku University and a co-author on the study.
What new insight into Mars water escape will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Communications Earth & Environment, EurekAlert!
Featured Image: Composite images of Mars obtained by NASA's Hubble in 2024. (Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI)