▲ Imagination of comparison between old Mars where water existed (right) and the present


Studies have shown that Mars is likely to have much less water than previously expected.



Martian water exists in a form combined with salts like salt water, but the stability of this combination is poor, making it difficult to exist in the Martian environment for a long time.



Professor Vincent Shebrier's team at the University of Arkansas' Space and Planetary Science Center, in The Planetary Science Journal, simulated the stability of the water-salt complex in consideration of characteristics such as freezing and evaporation of water and Mars climate patterns. It was revealed that it was found that it was difficult for water to exist stably longer than expected.



On Mars, water is known to exist in the form of a water-salt complex that withstands freezing, boiling and evaporation better than pure water.



Finding such water on Mars has become an important research task for future manned exploration as well as the search for life on Mars in the past or present.



In this study, the team calculated the evaporation rate of the water-salt conjugate through a Mars environment simulation, combined it with the Mars climate cycle pattern, and created a map of areas where water-salt conjugates are likely to be found on Mars.



Until now, studies on Mars water have mostly considered only one of the properties such as freezing, boiling, and evaporation of liquids, but in this study, considering the three characteristics and the actual atmospheric environment, an area where water-salt complexes are likely to exist stably was found. It.



The research team said that water-salt conjugates appear to be difficult to exist on the surface for a long time in the cold, thin and dry atmosphere of Mars. Existing studies appear to overestimate the possibility of stable water-salt conjugates.



Simulation results show that the most likely stable water-salt complexes exist in the region between the mid- to high latitudes of the northern hemisphere of Mars and inside the large impact zone in the southern hemisphere.



Water-salt conjugates are thought to exist in shallow ground near the Martian equator.



Even considering the best scenario, Professor Shebrier said that the time that water-salt conjugates can stably exist on Mars' surface is up to 12 hours per day. “There is no place on Mars where water-salt conjugates can stably exist all day long. "I said.



(Photo = Courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Yonhap News)