Scientists closer to unraveling the main secret of Mars – REGNUM

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Washington, September 3, 2015, 16:06 – REGNUM The researchers found that Mars has small deposits of carbonates suggest it is unlikely that the planet could have lost much of its atmosphere due to the binding of its gas and minerals on the surface of and conversion to other types of rocks, the press service of NASA.

Christopher Edwards of the US Geological Survey USGS in Flagstaff and his colleagues said that they came to the answer to the main question of the Red Planet, namely where it has disappeared the atmosphere and oceans. By bringing different probes and landers during the last 15-20 years, samples and studying geological data, the researchers concluded that the atmosphere of Mars is likely to have been sparse in the time on the surface of the river valleys were formed.

«I think, Mars was a warm and at the same time the coating liquid water, cold and rich water flowing away from the atmosphere into space», – explained Edwards.

Also, he said, to form channels are not required a lot of heat for their production would be enough small streams of water.

In addition, planetary scientists stressed that they expect to see more of salts of carbonic acid, but at the first observation of the structure of the Martian rocks, experts found that the subsoil of the Red Planet contain much less carbonate.

It should be noted that before the 90-ies of the last to Mars arrived orbiter, the researchers were confident that the Red Planet has evaporated atmosphere and water in space, they are supposed to become part of its subsoil in the form of carbonates.

However, it turned out that the world there is only one large deposit of carbonate, which is called “groove Neely.” It contains 34 times less than the compounds CO ₂ , than the point calculations, the authors of which implies the existence of a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere of Mars during those times, when the surface was attended by the oceans and rivers of liquid water.

Thus, there are two possibilities: either the Red Planet there are any deposits of carbonates, which are not found in 20 years of research, or Mars never had a warm climate and a thick atmosphere. It should be noted that scientists are more inclined to the second option.