Scientists Have Discovered How Mars Became a Desert

Bright Side

Scientists have discovered the real reason Mars turned into a dry, barren desert, and it’s pretty shocking. A long time ago, the Red Planet had lakes, rivers, and maybe even oceans, but something caused all that water to disappear. It turns out Mars lost its protective magnetic field, which let solar winds strip away its atmosphere over millions of years. Without a thick atmosphere to trap heat and keep water from evaporating, the planet slowly dried up. Now, all that’s left are dusty plains, deep canyons, and frozen ice beneath the surface. But if we ever want to live there, scientists are working on ways to bring some of that lost water back!  Credit: MarsCuriosityRover: By NASA / JPL-Caltech / Olivier de Goursac, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24439213 Curiosity Cradled: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16058, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20681168 PIA19080-MarsRoverCuriosity: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/MSSS, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37312498 Gale Crater: By NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21255, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56577299 Martian Rocks: By NASA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10545321 Gale Crater 2: By NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21255, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56577300 Jezero Crater Minerals: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Purdue/USGS, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83905251 Concentration en minéraux: By NASA, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91097062 Curiosity Rover Animation: By NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / YouTube, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mars_Science_Laboratory_Curiosity_Rover_Animation.webm Curiosity: By NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Watch_how_Curiosity_will_cruise_around_Mars_and_gather_samples_for_inspection.ogv Water Ice Map for Mars: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84799085 Ancient Lake: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS - https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17596, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30153051 Kolskaya-sverhglubokaya: By Alexander Novikov, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=130595242 Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Like the little engine that could, NASA's Curiosity rover has been bravely crawling

00:05over Gale Crater on Mars, trying to see what could've happened billions of years ago

00:11that made the planet a red desert.

00:13And it looks like it might've finally stumbled upon something.

00:17While life seems impossible on Mars now, eons ago, it may've been a world more like Earth,

00:23with a thick atmosphere, water, and maybe even life.

00:27But it seems things changed just recently.

00:30Studies show that just 3 billion years ago, the northern hemisphere of Mars might've hosted

00:35a stable ocean.

00:37On Earth, the Archean Eon was in full swing, volcanoes were going crazy, and life was taking

00:43its first steps.

00:45Life was also, perhaps, taking its first steps on Mars.

00:48No, not a frozen wasteland like Antarctica, but in a body of water like an Earth ocean.

00:55And this Earth-like climate extended Mars' habitable period by about 500 million years

01:01more than we thought before.

01:03In other words, there was a half a billion years where it was exactly like Earth, with

01:07conditions just right for life to start forming.

01:11But then, something happened that changed things forever.

01:15The atmosphere thinned, Mars lost its oceans, and became the cold, desolate place we see

01:20today.

01:22It's been a mystery for a while, but now, curiosity stumbled upon something interesting

01:27in the Gale Crater.

01:28A vast basin on the Martian surface where, billions of years ago, water once flowed freely.

01:35It found carbonates, stuff that can tell us all about the ancient Martian climate.

01:41There are minerals that form when carbon dioxide, or CO2, dissolves in water.

01:46Which means that, to create them, you need two things – a nice thick atmosphere and

01:51liquid water.

01:53Now on Earth, CO2 is super important because it helps trap heat from the Sun in our atmosphere.

01:59This keeps our planet warm enough to support life.

02:02Plants eat it during photosynthesis to create oxygen, which humans and animals need to breathe.

02:07On Mars, the presence of CO2 shows that there really was some kind of climate system.

02:14When CO2 starts dissolving in water, it reacts with certain minerals in the ground, like

02:19calcium or magnesium, and creates carbonates.

02:22That's kind of how seashells form in oceans here on Earth.

02:26But instead, it's happening with rocks on Mars.

02:29And this discovery is huge.

02:32These carbonates act like fossils of the planet's ancient climate.

02:35They store information about what Mars was like long ago.

02:39By studying them, scientists can get a peek into Mars' past back in the day when water

02:45was present.

02:46They can tell us how the Martian atmosphere has changed over time, show whether the atmosphere

02:51was warm or cold, or if there was a lot of water around, and what happened to the planet

02:56in general.

02:57Luckily, Curiosity can study this stuff right there.

03:01It has the sample analysis at Mars' Intunible Laser Spectrometer.

03:06Those are like Mars' forensic tools.

03:08The SAM is a mini-lab on wheels, and it's capable of heating Martian rock samples to

03:14extreme temperatures.

03:15There are two ovens that can heat samples to about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.

03:20This intense heat causes rocks to release gases trapped inside, the ones that are like

03:25ancient fingerprints of Mars' atmosphere.

03:29Once they're released, the TLS analyzes them in detail, breaking them down to the tiniest

03:34parts.

03:35And what the scientists discovered blew away all our previous assumptions about Mars'

03:40habitability.

03:41Turns out, it's not just about Mars once being wet.

03:45But there was something that led to the gradual drying and cooling of the planet.

03:50In other words, Mars' water didn't just disappear.

03:53It evaporated quickly under extreme conditions.

03:56So what happened to it?

04:00Astronomers produced two possible explanations.

04:02The first one says that Mars went through periods where it was sometimes wet and sometimes

04:07dry.

04:08The water didn't last a long time.

04:10It may have appeared in short bursts, with periods where it would dry up and then return.

04:15The second possibility is more intense.

04:18The water that was there was incredibly salty and cold, so instead of being liquid, it was

04:23mostly frozen in ice.

04:25This would've made the planet way too harsh for life as we know it, since the conditions

04:30would've been too extreme for anything to survive.

04:33Both possibilities sadly mean that Mars wasn't cozy and full of life in the past like some

04:38hoped.

04:39Well, at least not on the surface.

04:41That doesn't mean underground life couldn't exist, though.

04:45This one is still a possibility.

04:47And to find more, we must keep looking for hints of water now.

04:51Actually, after years of exploring Mars, scientists have just made a mind-blowing discovery.

04:57Right beneath the rocky surface of the Red Planet lies a hidden reservoir of liquid

05:01water.

05:02Real water this time.

05:04Not the frozen ice caps or vapor in the atmosphere, though it's miles below the Martian crust.

05:10This breakthrough comes from data collected by NASA's InSight lander.

05:14This guy spent 4 years listening to the subtle tremors of Mars.

05:18You know, Marsquakes.

05:20And it analyzed over 1,300 of them.

05:23Thanks to this, scientists were able to map out how seismic waves moved through the planet.

05:29And it revealed pockets of liquid water buried 6 to 12 miles underground.

05:34Not just one lake, but puddles.

05:37So they used the same methods we here on Earth use to find underground water, oil, and gas.

05:43And they were able to piece together the Martian underground system.

05:47You see, as the water disappeared and dried out, some of it escaped into space when Mars

05:53lost its thick protective atmosphere.

05:56However, this discovery shows that much of the water didn't disappear.

06:00It just sank deep underground, where it still lies today.

06:04So close, but out of reach.

06:07That's a huge step forward.

06:08Water is the most important molecule when it comes to shaping the destiny of a planet.

06:13And also, even though we said that Mars wasn't filled with life before, this doesn't take

06:18away the possibility of it having life now.

06:22If liquid water still exists deep underground, could there be some little microbes hiding

06:27there as well?

06:28Life as we know it can't survive without liquid water.

06:31And now, with this, the idea of life on Mars has become more plausible than ever.

06:37There's a catch, though.

06:39While this water may seem like a jackpot to future Mars colonization plans, it's not

06:44going to be easy to reach.

06:46To say that drilling 6 miles deep into the crust is no small feat is an understatement.

06:52Just so you know, here on Earth, the deepest we've drilled is about 7.5 miles.

06:57It was in the Kola Superdeep Borehole project.

07:01And this project pushed current technology to its limits.

07:04Intense heat, pressure, equipment failures, you name it.

07:08With Mars, that would be even crazier.

07:11It has a much colder environment, extremely thin atmosphere, and lack of infrastructure.

07:16That would make any drilling mission extremely difficult.

07:19To reach water reservoirs buried so deep on Mars, we would need specialized drilling equipment

07:25that would somehow get delivered there.

07:28It should also be able to handle extreme cold, low pressure, and different gravity.

07:32Oh, and it should all operate remotely and preferably not break, all while it needs tons

07:38of energy.

07:39Yeah.

07:40Now, it's possible that we would only be able to do this in the future when we'll

07:45have automated systems or astronauts on Mars.

07:48That's not a quick task for even the most ambitious billionaires.

07:52So for now, what these reservoirs hide is a mystery.

07:56But at least it's not the only one.

07:59As we mentioned, Mars hides one of the greatest secrets beneath its frozen southern pole – another

08:04buried vast lake of liquid water.

08:07The radar revealed it as a scanty ice cap in this region.

08:14But it's weird that it managed to stay liquid with such low temperatures.

08:18It's probably because of the geothermal heat beneath Mars' surface.

08:22And life could be there too.

08:24So now they're thinking about probing this lake first.

08:27That would be much easier.

08:29Curiosity's work is incredible, and it keeps helping us peel back the layers of Mars'

08:35ancient climate, giving us new pieces to the puzzle of what happened to our neighbor.

08:40And this could help us avoid similar mistakes in the future.

08:44That's it for today.

08:45So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your

08:50friends.

08:51Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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