What Does Discovery of Water on Mars Mean?

 Mars  

The first scoop of soil analyzed by the SAM instrument of NASA's Curiosity rover reveals that fine materials on the surface of the planet contain two percent water by weight. The discovery reveals new insights into the conditions on Mars and the planet's ability to support life.

NASA has announced that the Mars Curiosity rover has successfully found water in a sample of soil taken from a digging site known as "Rocknest." This isn't the first proof of water on Mars, but it could be the proof NASA needs to start realistically considering sending people to the Red Planet.

The announcement supports research from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), a NASA probe, say they've observed seasonally varying features on the surface of the Red Planet that could be carved by briny water.

Previously ice has been found on Mars at the planet's poles, inside some craters and sitting beneath the surface across vast swaths of the middle latitudes. Also, there is ample evidence that liquid water formed vast oceans on Mars in the distant past, carving valleys and other surface features.

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With a handful of exceptions, water is necessary for life as we know it. Not only is most of Earth's life water-based, but most scientists think life wouldn't have arisen in the first place if not for the watery "primordial soup" that covered the young Earth. Water makes it easier for organic molecules to swirl around and bump into each other to form interesting compounds.

"One of the most exciting results from this very first solid sample ingested by Curiosity is the high percentage of water in the soil," said Laurie Leshin, lead author of one paper and dean of the School Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "About 2 percent of the soil on the surface of Mars is made up of water, which is a great resource, and interesting scientifically." The sample also released significant carbon dioxide, oxygen and sulfur compounds when heated.

According to NASA, each cubic foot of Martian soil contains around two pints of liquid water, though the molecules are not freely accessible; they are bound to other minerals in the soil.

Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite

The Curiosity rover has been on Mars for a little over a year now, landing in an area near the equator of the planet known as Gale Crater. Its target is to circle and climb Mount Sharp, which is near the center of the crater, a five kilometer high mound of layered rock that will help scientists unravel the history of the planet.

Now, NASA scientists published a series of five papers in the journal Science, which detail the experiments carried out by the various scientific instruments aboard Curiosity in its first four months on the martian surface. Though highlights from the year-long mission have been released at conferences and press conferences, these are the first set of formal, peer-reviewed results from the Curiosity mission.

One of those instruments was employed in the current research: the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite, which includes a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer and a tunable laser spectrometer. These tools enable SAM to identify a wide range of chemical compounds and determine the ratios of different isotopes of key elements.

"We tend to think of Mars as this dry place – to find water fairly easy to get out of the soil at the surface was exciting to me," said Laurie Leshin, dean of science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and lead author on the Science paper which confirmed the existence of water in the soil. "If you took about a cubic foot of the dirt and heated it up, you'd get a couple of pints of water out of that – a couple of water bottles' worth that you would take to the gym."

About 2% of the soil, by weight, was water. Curiosity made the measurement by scooping up a sample of the Martian dirt under its wheels, sieving it and dropping tiny samples into an oven in its belly, an instrument called Sample Analysis at Mars. "We heat [the soil] up to 835C and drive off all the volatiles and measure them," said Leshin. "We have a very sensitive way to sniff those and we can detect the water and other things that are released."

Aside from water, the heated soil released sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen as the various minerals within it were decomposed as they warmed up.

Along with discoveries of organic chemicals on Mars, the existence of ample water on the planet further strengthens the impetus for humans to explore and eventually colonize Mars.


SOURCE  NASA

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