| Title | Mars: Water Could Disappear Faster Than Expected | |
| Date | Monday January 13 2020, @08:13AM | |
| Author | janrinok | |
| Topic | ||
| from the need-some-of-our-weather dept. | ||
Mars: Water could disappear faster than expected:
The small red planet is losing water more quickly than what theory as well as past observations would suggest.
The gradual disappearance of water (H2O) occurs in the upper atmosphere of Mars: sunlight and chemistry disassociate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms that the weak gravity of Mars cannot prevent from escaping into space. An international research teamthey led partly by CNRS researcher Franck Montmessin, has just revealed that water vapour is accumulating in large quantities and unexpected proportions at an altitude of over 80 km in the Martian atmosphere.
Measurements showed that large atmospheric pockets are even in a state of supersaturation, with the atmosphere containing 10 to 100 times more water vapour than its temperature should theoretically allow. With the observed supersaturation rates, the capacity of water to escape would greatly increase during certain seasons.
Journal Reference:
Anna A. Fedorova, Franck Montmessin, Oleg Korablev, Mikhail Luginin, Alexander Trokhimovskiy, Denis A. Belyaev, Nikolay I. Ignatiev, Franck Lefèvre, Juan Alday, Patrick G. J. Irwin, Kevin S. Olsen, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Ehouarn Millour, Anni Määttänen, Alexey Shakun, Alexey V. Grigoriev, Andrey Patrakeev, Svyatoslav Korsa, Nikita Kokonkov, Lucio Baggio, Francois Forget, Colin F. Wilson. Stormy water on Mars: The distribution and saturation of atmospheric water during the dusty season. Science, 2020; eaay9522 DOI: 10.1126/science.aay9522
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