One of the reasons NASA devotes so much of its time and resources on the exploration of Mars is to determine if the planet once had water on its surface. If there was once water present on the Red planet, there is a chance that the planet once had life of some sort as well.
Now, thanks to the years of research into the planet, NASA scientists have determined that Mars did, in fact, once have water on its surface. Not only was there water, but there was a lot of it. Scientists believe that the Red planet once had more water on its surface than is found today in Earth's Arctic Ocean. However, over time Mars has lost 87% of this water to space.
"Our study provides a solid estimate of how much water Mars once had, by determining how much water was lost to space," said Geronimo Villanueva, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the new paper. "With this work, we can better understand the history of water on Mars."
As recently as ten years ago, scientists thought that while Mars had some water it mostly came forth sporadically. But this latest discovery that Mars at one point had much more water than originally believed. However, over time Mars has lost 87% of this water to space.
"With Mars losing that much water, the planet was very likely wet for a longer period of time than was previously thought, suggesting it might have been habitable for longer," said Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at Goddard and an author of a paper on the findings, published in Science.
Approximately 4.3 billion years ago, Mars had enough water to cover its entire surface in a layer of water measuring approximately 450 deep according to scientists. The water is believed to occupy about half of the northern hemisphere of the planet.
The determination that the planet once held a large amount of water on its surface was made based on observations made by the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory.
Scientists hope to learn more about Mars' climate and what caused the planet to lose much of its water through NASA's Mars Exploration Program. Both NASA and the European Space Agency have rovers that will head to Mars in the coming years, armed with new instruments and tools that will be used to conduct research on the planet.
