Mars is replete with evidence of a watery past. Nowadays, the rovers of NASA travel through channels that millions of years ago were rivers and lakes in the past. But not all the liquid on the red planet could have been water. The latest research on the planet has allowed us to imagine that another of the elements that could have shaped its surface is liquid carbon dioxide (CO2).
A recent article from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) addresses the enigmatic scenario in which liquid CO2 was what filled some of those basins and rivers (today completely arid) on Mars. Furthermore, he estimates that, if the water-CO2 ambivalence is true, it is likely that the last liquid arose through the condensation of gas due to the primitive temperature of the planet.
The research published in Nature Perspectives was led by Michael Hecht, one of those in charge of the MOXIE instrument that houses the rover Perseverance on Mars. Hecht is one of the few people in the world who has had direct contact with analyzes of the Martian terrain and its watery past. The scientist takes advantage of his experience in the field to review the available scientific literature on the theory of liquid carbon dioxide. Discussing the implications of the theory does not equate to accepting it, but it allows us to explore possibilities beyond current certainties about Mars and direct future research.
“Understanding how enough liquid water could have flowed on early Mars to explain the morphology and mineralogy we see today is probably the biggest unresolved question in Mars science. “There is likely no right answer, and we are simply suggesting another possible piece of the puzzle,” Hecht said in an MIT statement.
According to the readings on sitesome chemical signatures in the Martian soil allow us to consider the possibility of “rivers of carbon dioxide.” It seems that the soil of Mars somehow sequestered carbon from the past in a peculiar way. The study mentions three cases in which the liquid element could be found: in the form of a surface liquid, as a basal fusion of frozen CO2 and as underground currents. The formation of each scenario will depend on the surface temperature conditions and the availability of carbon dioxide at that time.
For now, the liquid CO2 theory seems to have more points against it than for it. In general, the rovers Those who have investigated the site have found an overwhelming amount of data on traces of water left in the sediments. However, the lack of evidence on liquid gas may simply be due to a lack of instruments necessary for its observation.
Hecht’s report raises good news for enthusiasts of the bold theory. Confirmation of the presence of stable liquid CO2 would not contradict the general consensus about what the rivers and lakes of Mars contained millions of years ago. “The argument for the probable existence of liquid CO2 on the Martian surface is not an all-or-nothing scenario; “either liquid CO2, liquid water or a combination of both may have produced the geomorphological and mineralogical evidence of an aquatic Mars,” MIT points out.
“It is difficult to say how likely it is that this speculation about early Mars is actually true. “What we can say, and are saying, is that the probability is high enough that the possibility should not be ignored,” Hecht agrees.
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