Mars was called Red Planet for millennia. But the process that transformed its surface this color is starting only now to be understood. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
We have always known Mars like the red planet – but apparently, we may have had the reason Why wrong. In this case, it could review most of what we know about the history of our smaller nearby planet.
In a study published on February 25 in Natural communications, The researchers linked the nature of the red color of Mars to a particular kind of iron mineral. Although it has never been in doubt that the red of Mars was a consequence of the interaction of iron and water, exactly as and when it happened it proved to be more elusive.
All about iron
The new study indicates Ferrihydrite as guilty for the color of Mars. This is basically iron rich in water. Therefore, the researchers think that the planet was covered for the first time in the water for a discreet amount of time, then they clung to the soil full of iron for a long time while the planet dry. The study also shows that the environment of the first Mars may have been colder than we thought.
“The presence of Ferrihydrite tells us something specific about the past environment of Mars,” says Adomas Avolantinas, a post -Entrance member at Brown University and the main author in the newspaper. According to Valantinas, the mineral is typically formed in fresh conditions in which the environment has pH and approximately neutral conditions are ripe for oxidation – a certain type of chemical reaction which, in the case of iron, rust form. In essence, “this suggests that rather than warm conditions, the first Mars experienced a cold and humid environment,” says Valantinas.
Previous models supported a dry iron oxidation environment in the form of hematite. That is, assuming that exposure to oxygen atmospheric has created the red shade. Ferrihydrite iron suggests the need for water for a longer period of time in order to create that rich orange red shade.
Data collection
The data of several missions have been used to detect Ferrihydrite, including the ESA traces of the trail of the NASA and several rover. Various iron oxides (iron that has been exposed to oxygen) emit different wavelengths of light. By combining the data in these missions, avalantines and its colleagues have been able to discover that ferrihydrite is the predominant iron species on the Martian surface.
The data also indicate that Ferrihydrite may have come to dominate the Martian surface about 3 billion years ago. Avolantinas states that during this period, an intense volcanic activity on Mars was probably triggering the merger of ice on the surface. This period, called the Hesperian period, is also known for its intense floods and has marked the turning point in the history of the planet in which surface waters began to disappear.
“The times align with a period in which Mars was going from his most humid and more humid state to his current desert environment,” says Valantinas.
A lot to learn
There are not many doubts that Mars was covered once of water bodies. But they are the other factors that we are still putting together: how deep the seas have been, for how long they lasted, how much they were widespread and more. This study tells us that Mars may not have been such a mild place, and during the Hesperian period it was quite cold. Understanding the conditions in which Ferrihydrite was formed will help to put together the process through which the water has evaporated. And the loss of the oceans of Mars is also linked to the loss of its atmosphere, since both may have been due to the same processes.
Avolantinas states that the return mission of the sample of Mars could provide the crucial tests necessary to understand the role of ferrihydrite in the color of Mars, as well as exactly as it has been formed. It could also tell us about Mars as a place that potentially once kept life, if he ever presented himself.
“If Ferrihydrite is confirmed in the returned Martian samples, measurements of stable isotopes of iron, hydrogen and oxygen would be of particular interest,” he says. The isotopes are simply particular “flavors” of elements, containing the same number of protons in their nucleus but a different number of neutrons. “These measurements could reveal the water temperature in which ferrihydrite, the source of water (either meteoritic or marina) formed) and potentially even if the microbes played a role in the formation of ferrihydrite.”
