The landing of the Perseverance spacecraft on the surface of Mars aroused the curiosity of Internet users, as some contacted the French site "LCI", wondering about the location of the recently discovered water that was not present in the past on the surface of Mars.

In the report published by the "LCI" website, writer Thomas Despot said that the Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars on February 18th, in order to open the way for exploring the Red Planet.

The spacecraft has a primary mission: to investigate the existence of past life on the planet's surface and to explore places scientists suspect were once water bodies, rivers or deltas.

The writer added that this mission led by NASA raises the curiosity of many people who are interested in exploring the space world, as the site received many interactions and messages from Internet users about the water that was on Mars, and among those messages: “On Earth Something does not disappear suddenly, and something does not arise suddenly, but everything changes, and “Where is the water that was on Mars in the past?”

To answer these questions, the site enlisted the help of specialist Francis Rocard, an astrophysicist and head of the Solar System Exploration Program at the National Center for Space Research.

Francis Rocard: Today it can be acknowledged that there is ice at the poles of Mars, and it can be quantified (NASA)

Disappearance in the upper atmosphere

Frances Rocard says that many research teams around the world have tried to adjust the quantitative water balance on the surface of Mars, but the results are very partial, and what can be said is that the planet is getting cooler, meaning that it "lost a lot of its water."

Today, it is possible to acknowledge the existence of ice at the level of the poles in particular, and it can be quantified, but if there is water in a part of the planet's subterranean crust, the quantities involved must be determined. "Here, it is difficult to accurately estimate the volume of water."

According to Rocard, to understand how much water vanished from the surface of Mars we must look for changes for many years.

It should be noted that the planet lost its global magnetic field 3.9 billion years ago, and this has led to important consequences, according to the astrophysicist's assertion that "the Martian atmosphere has become in direct contact with the solar wind moving at a speed of 400 kilometers per second."

This factor affected the upper atmosphere for 4 billion years, causing its molecules to be gradually "broken down" by ions.

"The breakdown of the water molecule produces a hydrogen atom and the hydroxyl radical (consisting of a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom with an unpaired electron)," Rocard explains.

The hydrogen atom is very light, which stimulates its diffusion into planetary space.

The bottom line is that we will lose the water molecule, and this is how Mars slowly loses its water through the interaction between the solar wind and the stratosphere.

After Perseverance, NASA is seeking to send another mission to map the ice on Mars (NASA)

The amount of water cannot be determined

According to what the specialist said to the site, it is not necessary for water to be present in liquid form only, “due to the fact that Mars has become an ice desert, part of the water has condensed in the ground in ice to be buried under layers of dust.

It is believed that there may be an ice sheet between one and 10 meters thick, and it may be hidden, but it will remain so for millions of years.

There is also a mission that NASA wants to launch in this regard, which is that by 2026, through the use of a dedicated radar, ice maps will be mapped on Mars. "

At the present time, it is not possible to determine the amount of water that was present on the surface of the Red Planet or that is still present, in addition to the presence of other priorities on the way of scientists.

Francis Rocard concludes by saying, "Today we are facing the 50th flight that was directed to explore Mars, and although many of it failed, today we have a lot of data. It is agreed that determining the quantitative water balance is still difficult," especially since several studies have shed light on this. Topic for 20 years.

Today we achieved the primary goal and missions now focus more on "carbon and the effects of life".