For as long as humans have gazed at the night sky, Mars has stood out with its striking rusty-red color. From the ancient Romans to the present-day leaders, all of us have wondered about the secret behind this arresting red colour. Now, a new study has finally unlocked the secret behind the iconic red hue.
A new international study, partially funded by NASA, delved deep into how Mars got its iconic red color. This study also adds evidence to the fact that Mars had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate in its ancient past.
The present atmosphere which is too cold and thin to support liquid water (a quintessential ingredient for life to exis), on its surface for a lengthy period. However, previous studies have found evidence that water was abundant on the planet billions of years ago during a more clement era. From dried-up riverbeds to lake remnants, Indicates that water once flowed freely across the Martian surface.
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The recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, adds to this evidence. The study suggests that the water-rich iron mineral ferrihydrite may be the main culprit behind Mars’ reddish dust. Martian dust is known to be a hodgepodge of different minerals, including iron oxides, and this new study suggests one of those iron oxides, ferrihydrite, is the reason for the planet’s color.
These findings give a tantalizing clue to Mars’ wetter and potentially more habitable past because ferrihydrite forms in the presence of cool water, and at lower temperatures than other previously considered minerals, like hematite. This further suggests that Mars may have had a wet environment capable of sustaining liquid water, billions of years ago, before transitioning into the dry surface.
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“The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been considered for hundreds if not for thousands of years,” Adam Valantinas, lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, who started the work as a Ph.D. student at the University of Bern, Switzerland said in a statement.
“From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations, as well. We’re not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason why Mars is red, but we can now better test this using observational data and novel laboratory methods to essentially make a Martian dust in the lab,” Valantinas added
“These new findings point to a potentially habitable past for Mars and highlight the value of coordinated research between NASA and its international partners when exploring fundamental questions about our solar system and the future of space exploration,” Geronimo Villanueva, the Associate Director for Strategic Science of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and co-author of this study noted.
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“What we want to understand is the ancient Martian climate, the chemical processes on Mars — not only ancient — but also present. Then there’s the habitability question: Was there ever life? To understand that, you need to understand the conditions that were present during the time of this mineral’s formation. What we know from this study is the evidence points to ferrihydrite forming and for that to happen there must have been conditions where oxygen from air or other sources and water can react with iron. Those conditions were very different from today’s dry, cold environment. As Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the planet’s iconic red appearance,” Valantinas said.
“The study really is a door-opening opportunity. It gives us a better chance to apply principles of mineral formation and conditions to tap back in time. What’s even more important though is the return of the samples from Mars that are being collected right now by the Perseverance rover. When we get those back, we can actually check and see if this is right,” Jack Mustard of Brown University, a senior author on the study added.
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