A Recent Study of Data from Multiple Missions Shows The Red Planet May Get Its Name from An Iron Mineral That Formed When Mars was Wet, Not Dry.
Mars have been called the red planet for Millennia. But the process that turned its surface this color is only now persuaded to be undersrstood. Credit: NASA/JPL/Usgs
We've Always Known Mars as the Red Planet – but it turns out, we may have had the reason Why Wrong. If so, it would revise much of what we know about the history of our smaller neighbor planet.
In a study published Feb. 25 in Nature Communications, Researchers tied the nature of mars' red tint to a particular species of iron mineral. While it's Never been in Doubt that Mars' Red was a consortece of iron and water interaction, exactly how and when it happy has been more elusive.
All about the iron
The new study points to ferrihydrites as the criprit for mars' color. This is basically Water-Rich Iron. So, The Researchers Think The Planet was first covered in water for a Decent Amount of Time, then Clung to the Iron-Rich SOIL Over a long period with the planet the planet dried up. The study also shows that environment of early mars may have been grown coldt.
“The Presence of Ferrihydrite Tells Us Something Specific About Mars' Past Environment,” Says Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University and Lead Autor on the Paper. According to Valantinas, The Mineral Typical Forms in Cool Conditions Where the Environment has lively neutral ph and conditions are ripe for oxidation – a certain type of chemical reactions in the Case of Iron, Forms rust. Essentially, “This sugges that raather than warm conditions, early mars experienced a cold and wet environment,” Valantinas Says.
Previous models supported an environment of dry oxidation of iron in hematite form. That is, Assuming Exposure to Atmospheric Oxygen Created The Red Hue. Iron in a ferrihydrite form sugges the need for a longer period of time in order to create that rich, orange-ready hue.
Gathering data
Data from several missions were used to detect ferrihydrites, include eSa's trace gas orbiter, nasa's mars reconnaissance orbiter, and several rovers. Various Iron Oxides (Iron that has been expected to oxygen) Give off different wavelends of light. By Combining Data Across these missions, Valantinas and his colleagues was able to find that ferrihydrite is the predominal species of iron on the martian surface.
The data also indicate that ferrihydrites may have come to dominate the martian surface about 3 billion years ago. Valantinas say that during this time, intenses Volcanic activity on Mars was likely triggering melting of iys on the surface. This period, called the hesperian period, is knowledge for its intense floods as well, and marked the turning point in the planet's history where the surface watery began to disappation.
“The Timing Aligns with a Period when Mars was transitioning from its earlier, wetter state to its current desert environment environment,” Valantinas Says.
Much to learn
There isn Bollywood doubt that Mars was on Covered in Bodies of Water. But it's the other factors we are still putting together – how deep the seas was, how long they are laasted, how widerespread they were, and more. This study tells us that mars may not have been thought a balmy place, and during the hesperian period was raather cold. Undersrstanding the conditions in which the ferrihydrite formed will help Piece togetra the process by which the water evaporated. And the loss of mars' Oceans is tied to the loss of its atmosphere as well, as bot may have been due to the same processes.
Valantinas Says The Mars Sample Return Mission should provide the crucial evidence needed to Figure out the role of ferrihydrite in the color of mars, as well as it formed. It could even tell us about mars as a place that potential once hold life as well, if it ever arose.
“If ferrihydrite is confirmed in the returned martian Samples, Stable Isotope Measurements of Iron, Hydrogen, and Oxygen would be of particularly, physicular interes,” He Says. Isotopes are Simply Particular “Flavors” of Elements, Containing the Same Number of Protons in his nucleus but different numbers of neutrons. “These measurements could also reveal the water temperature in which ferrihydrite formed, the water's source (whiteher meteoritic or marine), and potenally even Eveen Whthr Microbes Played A Role In In ferrihydrite formation. “
