For a few years we have scientific proof that Mars must have contained a lot of water in the past . Now another relevant piece of information appears that indicates that the Red Planet not only had water but could have been a more humid place than previously believed . It is all due to a mineral that is commonly found in Martian meteorites but does not occur on Earth and whose identity was unknown until now.
A scientific team led by the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), found evidence that this mineral, called merrilite and that until now was considered more like the product of a dry past on Mars , could have originally been whitlochite, a mineral rich in hydrogen , which could be an indication of the presence of water. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications .
The researchers created synthetic whitlochite and subjected it to shock experiments that simulated the ejection conditions of meteorites from Mars . They bombarded the synthetic whitlochite samples with metal sheets fired from a pressurized gas cannon at speeds of 2,700 km per hour and with a pressure some 363,000 times greater than that contained in a basketball. Later, they studied its microscopic composition using X-rays at the Berkeley Laboratory and at the Argonne National in Chicago. The conclusion was that whitlochite can be dehydrated by this type of disturbance to form merrilite.
The data is relevant to deduce the amount of water that could have been on Mars and if it was from the planet itself and not from comets or meteorites, explains Martin Kunz, a scientist at Berkeley. Even if only part of the merrilite was previously whitlochite, the amount of water on Mars must have been greater than expected, says Oliver Tschauner, a research professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Las Vegas, who co-directed the study. And since whitlochite can be dissolved in water and contains phosphorus, an essential element for life on Earth, and merrilite appears to be common to many Martian meteorites, the study could also have implications for the possibility of life on Mars .
Although there is evidence that liquid water has flowed on Mars, there is still no evidence that life ever existed. In 2013, planetary scientists reported that the dark streaks that appear on the Martian slopes are likely related to periodic flows of water resulting from changes in temperature. The analysis was based on data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
And in November 2016, NASA scientists announced the existence of a large underground mass of ice in a region of Mars that contains the equivalent of all the water in Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes in the United States. Explorers on the ground have also found evidence of the ancient abundance of water after analyzing the rocks on the surface. “The missing link is to show that the merrilite actually came from an earlier Martian whitlokite,” Tschauner notes.
The Curiosity image shows signs of an ancient lake and deposits on Mars. Credit: NASA JPL-Caltech, MSSS.
