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Life on Mars? Escaping water vapour offers new clues
Researchers detected water emanating high up in thin atmosphere of red planet while Tianwen-1 probe entered orbit on Wednesday
Agence France-Presse
Wed 10 Feb 2021 17.30 EST
Researchers have observed water vapour escaping high up in the thin atmosphere of Mars, offering tantalising new clues as to whether the red planet could have once hosted life.
The traces of ancient valleys and river channels suggest liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars. Today, the water is mostly locked up in the planet’s ice caps or buried underground.
But some of it is vaporising, in the form of hydrogen leaking from the atmosphere, according to the new research co-authored in the journal Science Advances by two scientists at Britain’s Open University.
They detected the vapour by analysing light passing through the Martian atmosphere using an instrument called the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery.
The device is travelling aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/10/mars-water-vapour-researchers-life