Universe Today
The study of Mars' surface and atmosphere has unlocked some ancient secrets. Thanks to the efforts of the
Curiosity
rover and other missions, scientists are now aware of the fact that
water once flowed
on Mars and that the planet had a
denser atmosphere
. They have also been able to deduce what mechanics led to this atmosphere
being depleted
, which turned it into the cold, desiccated environment we see there today.
At the same time though, it has led to a rather intriguing paradox. Essentially, Mars is believed to have had warm, flowing water on its surface at a time when the Sun was one-third as warm as it is today. This would require that the Martian atmosphere had ample carbon dioxide in order to keep its surface warm enough. But based on the Curiosity rover's
latest findings
, this doesn't appear to be the case.
These findings were part of an analysis of data taken by the Curiosity's
Chemistry and Mineralogy X-ray Diffraction
(CheMin) instrument, which has been used to study the mineral content of drill samples in the Gale Crater. The results of this analysis were recently published in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
, where the research team indicated that no traces of carbonates were found in any samples taken from the ancient lake bed.
[caption id="attachment_122799" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
Simulated view of Gale Crater Lake on Mars, depicting a lake of water partially filling Mars' Gale Crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS
[/caption]
To break it down, evidence collected by
Curiosity
(and a slew of other rovers, landers and orbiters) has led scientists to conclude that roughly 3.5 billion years ago, Mars surface had lakes and flowing rivers. They have also determined, thanks to the many samples taken by
Curiosity
since it landed in the Gale Crater in 2011, that this geological feature was once a lake bed that gradually became filled with sedimentary deposits.
However, for Mars to have been warm enough for liquid water to exist, its atmosphere would have had to contain a certain amount of carbon dioxide - providing a sufficient Greenhouse Effect to compensate for the Sun's diminished warmth. Since rock samples in the Gale Crater act as a geological record for what conditions were like billions of years ago, they would surely contain plenty of carbonate minerals if this were the case.
Carbonates are minerals that result from carbon dioxide combining with positively charged ions (like magnesium and iron) in water. Since these ions have been found to be in good supply in samples of Martian rock, and subsequent analysis has shown that conditions never became acidic to the point that the carbonates would have dissolved, there is no apparent reason why they wouldn't be showing up.
Along with his team, Thomas Bristow - the principal investigator for the CheMin instrument on Curiosity - calculated what the minimum amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide would need to be, and how this would have been indicated by the levels of carbonate found in Martian rocks today. They then sorted through the years worth of the CheMin instrument's data to see if there were any indications of these minerals.
[caption id="attachment_100674" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
Comparison of X-ray diffraction patterns of two different samples analyzed by Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames
[/caption]
But as he explained in a recent NASA
press release
, the findings simply didn't measure up:
In the end, Bristow and his team could not find even trace amounts of carbonates in the rock samples they analyzed. Even if just a few tens of millibars of carbon dioxide had been present in the atmosphere when a lake existed in the Gale Crater, it would have produced enough carbonates for Curiosity's CheMin to detect. This latest find adds to a paradox that has been plaguing Mars researchers for years.
Basically, researchers have noted that there is a serious discrepancy between what surface features indicate about Mars' past, and what chemical and geological evidence has to say. Not only is there plenty of evidence that the planet had a denser atmosphere in the past, more than four decades of orbital imaging (and years worth of surface data) have yielded ample geomorphological evidence that Mars once had surface water and an active hydrological cycle.
[caption id="attachment_114501" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
The Gale Crater - the landing location and trek of the Rover Curiosity - as it is today, imaged by the MRO. Credits: NASA/JPL, illustration, T.Reyes
[/caption]
However, scientists are still struggling to produce models that show how the Martian climate could have maintained the types of conditions necessary for this to have been the case. The only successful model so far has been one in which the atmosphere contained a significant amount of CO2 and hydrogen. Unfortunately, an explanation for how this atmosphere could be created and sustained remains elusive.
In addition, the geological and chemical evidence for such a atmosphere existing billions of years ago has also been in short supply. In the past, surveys by orbiters were unable to find evidence of carbonate minerals on the surface of Mars. It was hoped that surface missions, like Curiosity, would be able to resolve this by taking soil and drill samples where water had been known to exist.
But as Bristow
explained
, his team's study has effectively closed the door on this:
[caption id="attachment_133289" align="aligncenter" width="580"]
Annontated version of the bedrock site in the Gale Crater where the Curiosity rover has taken drill samples. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS[/caption]
There are several possible explanations for this paradox. On the one hand, some scientists have argued that the Gale Crater Lake may not have been an open body of water and was perhaps covered in ice, which was just thin enough to still allow for sediments to get in. The problem with this explanation is that if this were true, there would be discernible indications left behind - which would include deep cracks in the soft sedimentary lakebed rock.
But since these indications have not been found, scientists are left with two lines of evidence that do not match up. As Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's Project Scientist, put it:
Luckily, incongruities in science are what allow for new and better theories to be developed. And as the exploration of the Martian surface continues - which will benefit from the arrival of the ExoMars and the Mars 2020 missions in the coming years - we can expect additional evidence to emerge. Hopefully, it will help point the way towards a resolution for this paradox, and not complicate our theories even more!
Further Reading: NASA
