NASA scientists are saying that there was once a there was once a time when there existed a vast ocean on Mars. Sometime around 4 billion years ago, the Red Planet had an immense body of water that overspread a big portion of Martian surface, a new study reveals, as published in the journal of Science.
According to the estimates, it is believed that this magnitude of the ocean was larger than our planet’s Arctic Ocean. As scientists suggest, the amount of water present on Mars those 4 billion years ago was sufficient to overspread the whole surface of the planet in a liquid lava coating with the depth of around 140 meters. Although scientists have revealed that this water was most likely pooled for the formation of a huge ocean, taking over almost about half of the Mars’ northern hemisphere. It is said, that in some places, the ocean went as deep as 1.6 kilometers or more maybe.
The analysis of two forms of water that researchers found and collected from the Martian grounds reflected a minor difference that both of them had from one another. The two forms of water were classified as ‘regular water’ and ‘heavy water’. The regular water consisted of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom, whereas in the heavy water, one of the hydrogen atoms was substituted by a heavier form called deuterium, forming HDO. The research group measured the ration of the two forms of water in order to find out their relative abundance in Mars’ atmosphere. The Keck Observatory’s 10-meter Keck II telescope, NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility, and ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile were employed for carrying out the research.
The lead author of this new research, Geronimo Villanueva, a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland stated “Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much water was lost to space. With this work, we can better understand the history of water on Mars.”
The analysis of the Martian surface suggested that the water was most probably present in the Mars’s Northern Plains since that area has a low-lying land. This long-lived ocean has most likely covered 19% of the surface of Mars.