WASHINGTON: After a year of research, scientists now say that the Red Planet could very well be harboring isolated pockets of salt water during its night cycle, making Mars less dry than originally thought.
Mars is of course much too cold to support much in the way of liquid water. The water ice at its poles has been thought to be the only source of water on the Red Planet currently, though researchers say that the planet could have easily supported an ocean around the size of the Atlantic far in the past, when the atmosphere wasn’t so thin. However, research data gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover over the last year seem to bear out theory that briny puddles of water might show up in the night when no one’s looking.
A very specific type of salt present in the soil of Mars could easily pull water vapor from what remains of the Red Planet’s atmosphere after sunset, the theory goes. This would turn patches of soil into muddy, briny puddles – and the salt would lower the water’s freezing point sufficiently to weather the brutally cold Martian night.
So far there hasn’t been any direct evidence that these puddles of Martian salt water exist once the sun goes down on Mars. However, the new study says it could be very possible; the report’s co-author, Alfred McEwen from the University of Arizona at Tuscon, says that if brines can be discovered near the current location of the Curiosity rover – Gale Crater – they would be able to exist anywhere on the planet.
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