Several scientists previously concluded that the Red Planet’s atmosphere had dried out as a result of the loss of carbon dioxide, which served to keep it warm. Lately, more questions have been raised regarding this topic. So, why did Mars dry out?
A new study published (read below) in the journal Science Advances sheds light on why Mars went from being a once-wet planet to the arid expanse it is now.
Mars used to be engulfed in rivers, streams, and lakes, according to the research lead by University of Chicago geophysical scientist Edwin Kite. Kite and his colleagues studied the traces of Martian rivers that are still observable on the planet’s surface to see what they may tell us about the planet’s water and atmosphere evolution.
“People have put forward different ideas, but we’re not sure what caused the climate to change so dramatically…We’d really like to understand, especially because it’s the only planet we definitely know changed from habitable to uninhabitable,” Kite said in a statement.
Previously, scientists concluded that the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which served to maintain Mars warm, caused it to dry out. Kite and his colleagues, on the other hand, used maps created from thousands of images obtained by orbiting satellites of Mars to put together a timeline of how river activity on the planet altered over billions of years.
After that, they paired their data with climate simulations to see which ones matched the best. The scientists came to the conclusion that the loss of some other crucial factor that kept Mars warm enough for running water was to blame for the change in the planet’s climate.
“We don’t know what this factor is, but we need a lot of it to have existed to explain the results,” Kite said.
There are various choices, according to the study’s authors. The team is currently planning a series of tests that NASA’s Perseverance rover may carry out in order to gather more evidence to help them answer the enigma of why Mars dried up.
Read the study below:
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