When the Mars lost its atmosphere billions of years ago, it went from being a planet that could support life, since it had liquid water on its surface, to a completely arid world and a cold desert bombarded by radiation. It is established that there were lakes and rivers on the Red Planet, possibly oceans or large seas at one point.
Many theories have been put forward over time about what happened to Mars and how it lost its atmosphere, with the most recent focusing on the “solar wind” factor. This approach is based on data collected by the satellites that we have sent to the Red Planet over the last few decades, which are in orbit around it and studying it.
These data show that Mars’ magnetic field, which, like every planet, is a shield against various harmful cosmic phenomena, suddenly lost its strength, causing solar winds to enter the planet’s atmosphere and gradually remove its components, dragging them into space, thus transforming Mars into the inhospitable world we know today.
With publication In the journal “Science Advances”, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the famous MIT, present a new disruptive and particularly interesting theory. According to this theory, much of the missing atmosphere of Mars was absorbed by the planet’s crust in the form of methane about 3.5 billion years ago.
“In some ways, Mars’ missing atmosphere may be hidden in plain sight,” the researchers report.
The fuel
If this is true, it raises hopes that one day the methane stored in Martian minerals could be recovered and used as fuel to power the first manned missions to the planet and, later, the bases and colonies planned to be created there.
“This methane could still be present and perhaps even used as an energy source on Mars in the future,” said Oliver Jagutz, a professor of geology in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). The researchers argue that over time, water on the Martian surface flowed through the rocks, causing a slow chain reaction that attracted carbon dioxide. coal from the atmosphere and turned it into methane.
The researchers estimate that the methane stored in Martian minerals would be equivalent to about 80 percent of the planet’s early atmosphere. “Based on our findings on Earth, we show that similar processes likely occurred on Mars and that abundant amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide could have been converted to methane and sequestered in minerals,” says Oliver Jagudz, a professor of geology in MIT’s Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS).
Naftemporiki.gr