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Researchers using the Russian-European communicator ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter have detected water vapor rising to Mars’ upper atmosphere, adding to the body of evidence that the red planet was once partially blue.
A great deal of orbital and rover research has been devoted to examining traces of ancient river valleys that have long indicated that water once flowed on the surface of Mars.
New research by two scientists from the Open University of Great Britain, published in the journal Science Advances, suggests the presence of hydrogen escaping from the planet’s atmosphere.
The pair analyzed the light passing through the atmosphere using an instrument called Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
Water is a key ingredient of life as we know it at least, so tracing its origins and the story of its disappearance from the Red Planet will be crucial to any colonization plan, while potentially providing information on the comes out of our own planet. .
“Measuring isotopes of water is a crucial part of understanding how Mars as a planet has lost water over time, and therefore how the habitability of the planet has changed throughout its history,” says Manish Patel, senior lecturer in planetary sciences at the Open University.
We know that the majority of Mars’ remaining moisture is locked in its polar ice caps, which is stimulating some questionable, but probably ironic, ideas about their bombardment to terraform the planet for human habitation.
China’s Tianwen-1 probe joined the United Arab Emirates’ Orbiter Hope in orbit above the Red Planet on Wednesday, deploying even more resources from Earth to find out what exactly happened to our nearest planetary neighbor and potentially paving the way for human colonization in the decades to come.
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