Scientists have discovered that water in Mars salts contains oxygen

Planetary scientists have discovered that the planet's water "salts" of Mars can contain a large amount of oxygen, enough to sustain microbes and multicellular organisms.

"There is almost no oxygen in the Martian atmosphere," said Woodward Fisher of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "Nobody thought that there were places in his environment that could withstand aerial respiration, and our calculations showed that such environmental conditions may be present in the water near the upper layers of Mars"

Geologists, astronomers and others have been arguing for years about the existence of reserves of organic matter and microbes in the upper layer of the Martian soil, a relatively hot liquid water not reached by cosmic rays. The discovery of the MRO has increased the effects of water on the highlands and boreholes in the tropical region Exacerbated differences in the existence of life on the planet, especially after it became apparent that this water contains many salts, including toxic perchlorates, which makes it difficult to live there.

But the discovery of microorganisms in alkaline and acidic lakes on Earth, in conditions similar to those of Mars, has forced scientists to rethink the presence of microbes on Mars.

According to Fisher and his scientific team, one of the obstacles is the lack of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere, necessary for the life of multicellular organisms, including plants.

Scientists therefore devised a computer model of "brine solution" that took into account how it interacted with oxygen and Mars air and calculated how it would evolve with temperature and pressure variation. and the difference in salt concentration.

It has turned out that the water contains a high percentage of oxygen in the presence of close to the poles of the planet and that it contains a high proportion of magnesium perchlorate and calcium. The oxygen content is about 32 mg per cubic meter of water, which is sufficient for the life of microbes and primitive multicellular organisms.

According to scientists, these areas cover 6.5% of the planet's surface, which increases the risk of life on the surface.