New observations show that water vapor in the Martian atmosphere is supersaturated, leading to concerns of future destabilization of Mars’ atmosphere. The atmospheres of the planets have evolved over the thousands of millions of years since the birth of the solar system. Mars is, of course, further from the sun and is smaller than Earth, characteristics which have influenced its atmosphere over time.
In particular, the atmosphere of Mars is considerably thinner than that of Earth by a factor of over 100. Its atmosphere contains mainly carbon dioxide (95%), and nitrogen (3%) with trace amounts of oxygen and water vapor.
Water is a strong greenhouse gas, but because of its very low concentration in the Martian atmosphere, it causes a negligible warming effect on the surface. Nonetheless, the presence of water ice clouds in the martian atmosphere has an important influence on its climate. According to experts and our partners from Rolling Slots .
Water Vapor in the Martian Atmosphere Higher Than Expected Suite101
Spectacular sand pit found on Mars! Discover
Check. This. Out: a perfectly-formed collapse pit on Mars that leads to an underground cavern! This was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in July 2011. See the hole in the bottom? You can tell from the lighting that this is an underground opening to a cavern — a skylight. Quite a few of these have been found on Mars, actually. We see them on Earth and even on the Moon. Given the angle of the shadows, the vertical distance from the bottom of the pit to the floor of the cavern is about 20 meters (65 feet). Watch your step!
Potential Mars Water ‘A Big Deal,’ Scientists Say
Claims of water on Mars have been made before, but a new discovery of potential liquid water on the Red Planet’s surface last week is still making waves in the science world. What differentiates the new find from previous discoveries is the fact that it’s the strongest evidence yet for liquid water, as opposed to ice, and it’s on the Martian surface, as opposed to miles underground where it would be difficult to verify its presence.
NASA Spacecraft Data Suggest Water Flowing on Mars
Observations from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.
“NASA’s Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “and it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration.”
Dark, finger-like features appear and extend down some Martian slopes during late spring through summer, fade in winter, and return during the next spring. Repeated observations have tracked the seasonal changes in these recurring features on several steep slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars’ southern hemisphere.
“The best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water,” said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. McEwen is the principal investigator for the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and lead author of a report about the recurring flows published in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science.
Orbiter spots possible water seepage on surface of Mars Ars Technica
Over the last several decades, evidence has piled up that Mars once played host to liquid water on its surface. But in its current geological era, the red planet is too cold and has too little atmosphere to allow liquid to survive for long. Even at the peak of Martian summer, water would evaporate off quickly during the day, or freeze solid as soon as night hit. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t exist beneath the surface, where pressures and temperatures might be quite different, so researchers have been looking for signs that some subterranean liquid might bubble to the surface. Now, scientists are reporting some changes on the Martian surface that seem to be best explained by a watery seep.
Mars Movie: I’m Dreaming of a Blue Sunset
A new Mars movie clip gives us a rover’s-eye view of a bluish Martian sunset, while another clip shows the silhouette of the moon Phobos passing in front of the sun.
America’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, carefully guided by researchers with an artistic sense, has recorded images used in the simulated movies.
These holiday treats from the rover’s panoramic camera, or Pancam, offer travel fans a view akin to standing on Mars and watching the sky.
“These visualizations of an alien sunset show what it must have looked like for Opportunity, in a way we rarely get to see, with motion,” said rover science team member Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station. Dust particles make the Martian sky appear reddish and create a bluish glow around the sun.
Shallow Groundwater Reservoirs May Have Been Common on Mars
An international research team led by the Planetary Science Institute has found evidence for reservoirs of liquid water on Mars at shallow crustal depths of as little as tens of meters.
J. Alexis Palmero Rodriguez, research scientist at PSI, and the research team came to this conclusion after studying collapsed terrains that occur within some of the solar system’s largest channels.
Investigations of similar but vastly larger zones of collapse located where these channels initiate have led previous investigations to postulate that the upper crust of Mars contained vast aquifer systems concealed underneath a global frozen layer kilometers in thickness. However, these zones of large-scale collapse are rare on Mars and their formation most likely took place under exceptional hydrogeologic conditions. The PSI-led team’s work documents the distribution of groundwater within crustal zones located beyond these regions.
New Evidence Suggests Icebergs in Frigid Oceans on Ancient Mars
Ancient Mars once had surprisingly frigid primeval oceans complete with their own icebergs, new evidence suggests.
There are currently two leading ideas for what the climate of ancient Mars might have been like.
One is that it was cold and dry, contending that valley networks and other geological features suggestive of liquid water in Mars’ past were essentially results of bursts of heat confined in space and time, suggesting that Mars could not have sustained oceans. The other is that Mars was once warm and wet, implying that it could once have supported lakes, seas and rainfall for long periods.
Argentine lake may offer clues to life on Mars
A lake in Argentina’s remote, inhospitable northwest may offer clues on how life got started on Earth and how it could survive on other planets, scientists say.
Researchers have found millions of “super” bacteria thriving inside the oxygen-starved Lake Diamante, in the center of a giant volcanic crater located over 15,400 feet above sea level.
The bacteria’s habitat is similar to primitive earth, before living and breathing organisms began wrapping a protective atmosphere of oxygen around the planet.
The conditions — which include high arsenic and alkaline levels — could also shed light on life beyond Earth.
New CU-Boulder Study Indicates an Ancient Ocean May Have Covered One-Third of Mars University of Colorado at Boulder
A vast ocean likely covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago, according to a new study conducted by University of Colorado at Boulder scientists.
The CU-Boulder study is the first to combine the analysis of water-related features including scores of delta deposits and thousands of river valleys to test for the occurrence of an ocean sustained by a global hydrosphere on early Mars. While the notion of a large, ancient ocean on Mars has been repeatedly proposed and challenged over the past two decades, the new study provides further support for the idea of a sustained sea on the Red Planet during the Noachian era more than 3 billion years ago, said CU-Boulder researcher Gaetano Di Achille, lead author on the study.