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Another study strengthen the hypothesis of the existence of past ocean on Mars.
Before billions of years ago, the northern hemisphere of Mars was covered ocean. It contained a comparable amount of water in the Arctic Ocean to the Earth, and its surface is larger than the surface of the Atlantic on Earth. These conclusions were reached by scientists after six years of intensive studies of the Martian atmosphere using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and released by NASA instruments.
Rocky and cold Mars about four billion years ago, the ocean was covered with an average depth of 140 meters, and in the deepest places even up to 1.6 km. Water accumulated in the northern hemisphere of the planet. This is due to the water content of the research on Mars, conducted by an international team of researchers. The criterion here is the so-called ratio. heavy water – HDO to commonly occurring water (H 2 O). Heavy water is characterized in that, in place of one hydrogen atom includes deuterium – a hydrogen isotope, comprising one neutron in the nucleus, which is heavier than twice the isotope 1 H.
As the water consisting of deuterium is heavier than normal water, the process of evaporation in the cosmos is the more difficult. Thus, the higher the ratio, the more water is lost. Based on these assumptions and results, the researchers predict that prehistoric Martian ocean was in the northern hemisphere of the planet, because of its geological structure. He held approx. 19 percent. the planet (for comparison, the Atlantic covers an area of 17 per cent. of the Earth).
The study was conducted using the Very Large Telescope, located in Chile, and the instruments at NASA’s WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
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