Mars had at some time in their history as large as the vast Arctic Ocean, determined NASA scientists whose works were published on Thursday.
These researchers also calculated, by analyzing the Martian atmosphere, the red planet lost 87% of its water in space.
When in his youth Mars was still a wet planet, had enough water to completely cover the planet to a depth of 137 meters , they said in the study published in the journal Science.
But in reality, the water probably formed an ocean that covered half of the northern hemisphere, where reaching to depths of 1.6 kilometers .
On the geology, this part of the planet has long been regarded by scientists as the area more conducive to contain an ocean, which should have covered 19% of Mars. In comparison, the Atlantic occupies 17% of the surface of the Earth.
“Our study provides a good estimate of water that was on Mars, to determine the amounts that were lost in space,” explains Geronimo Villanueva, a researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in Greenbelt, Maryland (east) and one of the main authors. “With this research, we can better you understand the history of water on Mars,” said
This estimate is based on very detailed observations in slightly different forms of water. The family, consisting of an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms (H2O) and heavy water, in which one of the two hydrogen atoms is replaced by deuterium.
Using the infrared telescope Keck 2 located in Hawaii, and the powerful European ESO telescope in Chile, scientists were able to distinguish between the chemical signatures of the two waters. Comparing the proportion of heavy water in normal water, able to deduce the amount of water leaked into space.
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