Formerly Full of Water, Where Is The Water On Mars Now?

Mars with Its Water Illustration

The news of the planet Mars has water has ever been good news for Us, which indicates that the red planet is likely to be inhabited. However, some time ago experts made sure the mars no longer have water. Everything's gone.

They initially speculated that the collapse of the billions of billions of mars billions of years ago destroyed the atmospheric protector and made water evaporate into space. Now, there is a new suspicion as to where the waters of Mars disappear. Reporting from the Telegraph, Wednesday (20/12/2017), new theory from the University of Oxford shows that the actual water mars do not go anywhere.

Water is actually absorbed by rocks to the bottom surface of the mars. "People have been thinking about the loss of water on Mars for a long time, but no one has tested the theory of water absorbed by rocks, one of the reasons mars lost water, it could be because of its mineralogy," said Dr. Jon Wade, NERC Research Associate at the Department of Earth Sciences Oxford .

In a study published in the journal Nature, the researchers used computer modeling to calculate how much water can be absorbed by rocks on the surface of Mars. They analyzed the mars rover data showing that the surface of the mars absorbs all the water and makes the planet dry.

The results show, bedrock on Mars can absorb water up to 25 percent more than earth. This allows the mars to absorb more water to the surface. The research team assessed this situation because of the role of rock temperature and pressure beneath the surface of Mars. They already know that the size of Mars is smaller than the Earth and has a high iron content. This makes a lot of water absorbed into the crust.

This reaction is different from a lighter crust and a higher temperature rise in early history can prevent water from reacting with the earth's crust. "There is more iron in the crust of the mars than the earth, which makes it easier to react with water," Wade told Gizmodo on Wednesday (20/12/2017).

The researchers believe that this process is very strong. Proverbial, the earth's crust can devour the ocean for two miles. "On Mars, water reacts with newly erupted lavas and forms porous rocks like sponges that absorb water. These water-stone reactions alter rock mineralogy and cause the planet's surface to become dry and become unfriendly to life," Wide told the Telegraph.

Wade revealed the explanatory model he made it still needs to be fixed with more data. "But everyone can agree that in the past, Mars did have a lot of water," Wade added.