Curiosity Rover Finds Liquid Water on Mars
Due to the cold weather on Mars, it is close to impossible to support liquid water, but the salts present in the soil lowers the temperature that allows brines to form. These brines give scientists significant data to support the theory that the presence of dark streaks on crater walls is secondary to flowing water.
The data recovered are the result of Curiosity's 24-hour, year round data gathering. The team led by Javier Martin-Torres studied the atmospheric humidity and temperature on Mars. Although the international team working on the Rover Environmental Monitoring System (REMS) cannot directly analyze the liquid brines, Martin-Torres shares with BBC that the finding is still significant.
"What we see are the conditions for the formation of brines on the surface. It's similar to when people where discovering the first exoplanets. They were not seeing the planets, but they were able to see the gravitational effects on the star," he said. "These perchlorate salts have a property called deliquescence. They take the water vapor from the atmosphere and absorb it to produce the brines."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The temperature of the liquid water is about -70C, which is still too cold to support presence of microbes. The brines, forming on 15cm of the Martian surface, also have the tendency for cosmic radiation exposure.
Based on the new measurements taken by Curiosity the formation of liquid brines occurs at the uppermost soil of the Martian crater at night. Then the brines would evaporate secondary to the warming of the air and ground after sunrise.
To give a better picture of the process, Martin-Torres shared a schematic diagram of the day and night water cycle occurring on the Martian surface:
This latest development leads scientists to believe that if brines can occur at the Martian equator, which has the least favorable condition, formation of brines in areas of higher latitudes (higher humidity and lower temperature) could be more persistent.
"It's a speculation at this point … but these observations at least support or go in this direction," clarified Martin-Torres.
