Life on Mars? Evacuation of water vapor provides new clues

Researchers have observed water vapor seeping into Mars’ thin atmosphere, providing tantalizing new clues as to whether the Red Planet could have harbored life.

Traces of ancient river valleys and canals indicate that liquid water once passed through the surface of Mars. Today, water is mostly trapped in the planet’s ice caps or buried underground.

But some of it evaporates when hydrogen escapes from the atmosphere, according to new research co-authored in Science Advances by two scientists at the British Open University.

They discovered vapor by analyzing the light passing through Mars’ atmosphere using a tool called Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery.

The plane travels aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Union and the Roscosmos Roscosmos agency.

“This remarkable tool gives us an unprecedented view of the isotopes of water in the Martian atmosphere as a function of time and space,” said Manish Patel, senior lecturer in planetary sciences at the Open University.

“The measurement of water isotopes is an essential element in understanding how Mars, as a planet, has lost its water over time, and therefore how the habitability of the planet has changed over the course of its history”, did he declare.

It has been a busy week for research on Mars.

The Chinese probe, Tianwen-1, entered orbit around the planet on Wednesday after being launched from southern China last July, the latest advance in Beijing’s ambitious space program.

The Emirati spacecraft “Al-Amal” successfully entered Mars orbit the day before, recording that date as the first interplanetary mission to the Arab world.