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New Study Challenges Long-Held Theory of Fate of Mars’ Water


Waspie_Dwarf

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New Study Challenges Long-Held Theory of Fate of Mars’ Water

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The new science results indicate that a large quantity of the Red Planet’s water is trapped in its crust rather than having escaped into space.

Billions of years ago, according to geological evidence, abundant water flowed across Mars and collected into pools, lakes, and deep oceans. New NASA-funded research shows a substantial quantity of its water – between 30 and 99% – is trapped within minerals in the planet’s crust, challenging the current theory that due to the Red Planet’s low gravity, its water escaped into space.

arrow3.gif  Read More: NASA

 

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There could be oceans on Mars and we wouldn't be able to see them. They would be frozen hard as a rock and covered with the Martian dust from the endless annual dust storms. If the temperature there rises to near the freezing point of water that would be a scalding hot summer day there. If H2O exists on Mars it is as a solid or possibly a gas but not a liquid.

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On 3/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, DanL said:

There could be oceans on Mars and we wouldn't be able to see them. They would be frozen hard as a rock and covered with the Martian dust from the endless annual dust storms. If the temperature there rises to near the freezing point of water that would be a scalding hot summer day there. If H2O exists on Mars it is as a solid or possibly a gas but not a liquid.

Actually we would be able to detect them. The temperature on Mars can reach 20oC, in summer, at the equator. That is more than enough to unfreeze them. You are correct that liquid water can not exist on the Martian surface, this is because of the very low atmospheric pressure, but at these temperatures water would sublime (go straight from ice to vapour without going through the liquid phase). Such large amounts of water vapour would be easily detectable by any one of the spacecraft orbiting Mars.

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On 3/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, DanL said:

There could be oceans on Mars and we wouldn't be able to see them. They would be frozen hard as a rock and covered with the Martian dust from the endless annual dust storms. If the temperature there rises to near the freezing point of water that would be a scalding hot summer day there. If H2O exists on Mars it is as a solid or possibly a gas but not a liquid.

Absolutely correct...these "Oceans" would need to be hermetically sealed from the surface because they would simply sublime into a gaseous form. These would be undetectable by any orbiting satellite unless they were in the right place at the right time. One would have to suppose that any breach of subterraneous ice formation to the surface was of sufficient quantity to actually register such an event.  

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23 hours ago, Waspie_Dwarf said:

Actually we would be able to detect them. The temperature on Mars can reach 20oC, in summer, at the equator. That is more than enough to unfreeze them. You are correct that liquid water can not exist on the Martian surface, this is because of the very low atmospheric pressure, but at these temperatures water would sublime (go straight from ice to vapour without going through the liquid phase). Such large amounts of water vapour would be easily detectable by any one of the spacecraft orbiting Mars.

firstly you need to understand that 20C is solely a potential temperature at the surface of mars (solar forcing), this is not an atmospheric temperature because the atmosphere cannot retain this temperature due to its low pressure. There are insufficient particulate molecules to maintain this temperature above the surface of Mars

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