Most of the water on Mars is now stored as molecules in the planet’s crust.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – About four billion years ago, Bumi dan Mars still young, hot and wet. If they are not twin planets in the Solar System, then they must be ‘brother and sister’.
Currently, Mars is being dubbed as Red Planet more like a dead planet. The surface is dry and cold, well below freezing, with no moisture content.
Some geologists suspect that the seawater that once covered Mars is actually still left over. The water is now trapped below the surface of the ground.
Research conducted by Dr. Eva Scheller and colleagues from the California Institute of Technology concluded, to a large extent water on Mars now stored as molecules in the planet’s crust.
If this is the case, can the water stored in the crust of the planet Mars one day be used to help humans live there?
According to Dr Eva, it depends on the crystal structure of the rock. Clay structures, for example, will lose their water content at a temperature of about 400 degrees Celsius. Only then can we collect the liquefied gas and freeze it.
“But the amount of water content is quite small, so we have to heat so many rocks to get more water,” he explained.
It is estimated that the water that fills the oceans of Mars and Earth originates from the bowels of the planets sent by comets and other remains of celestial bodies that occurred as a result of the formation of the Solar System. The volcanic eruption then spewed water vapor into the planet’s atmosphere.
Today, planetary and astrologers have an idea of how much water once existed on Mars after examining features such as the shape of ancient coastlines and the depth of basins.
Calculations made on all water and ice content when Mars still had water – including water vapor in its atmosphere – and then distributed evenly over the entire surface of the planet, the oceans on this planet are estimated to have a depth of between 100 and 1,500 meters.
If similar calculations were made for the time being, where most of the water is ice at the planet’s poles, the ocean would only be 20 to 40 meters deep.
source: ABC
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