In Test Chambers, Engineers Show How Liquid Water Forms on Mars
In chambers that mimic Mars' conditions, University of Michigan engineers have shown how small amounts of liquid water could form on the planet despite its below-freezing temperatures. The researchers found that a type of salt present in Martian soil can readily melt ice it touches - just like salts do on Earth's slippery winter walkways and roads. The findings support the theory that strange globules seen on the Mars Phoenix lander's leg were liquid water.
Transcript
00:00:00 constant velocity phase detected altitude 40 meters the phoenix mission was very exciting during the landing of phoenix the top side was removed splashed around the spacecraft so the blobs that we saw in the strat of the phoenix lander was probably a mixture of south and melted ice and during a few hours
00:00:26 per day each day it would liquefy perhaps there is some bacterial life that could survive and even replicate in those water the controversies because this was completely unexpected we went out to look for ice and to look for evidence of liquid water in the distance past and right now we were seeing evidence
00:00:49 for liquid water that became less controversial when phoenix discovered assault there perchlorate that could produce liquid at the conditions that we were observing there what i proposed was to simulate the conditions at the phoenix landing site and to study the formation of those blobs in the land you really need to do
00:01:14 a simulation that can convince you know yourself and the whole scientific community that something is possible so most of the last few years we spent developing the chamber the only one we believe that we can simulate the conditions at the mars polar region controlling the water vapor pressure down to the very small amounts that we
00:01:37 have in the polar region what we found out is if we have just the south absorbing water from the air in a few hours we don't see the formation of liquid if we have ice and then the south on top of the ice in a few tens of minutes liquid water form our measurements uh clearly indicate
00:02:00 that and it's um really a proof that the liquid water form at the conditions of the phoenix landing site when the south is in contact with the ice based on the results of our live experiment we expect the soft ice that can liquefy perhaps a few days per year perhaps a
00:02:23 few hours per day almost anywhere on mars so going from mid latitudes all the way to the polar region this is a small amount of liquid water but for a bacteria that will be a big swimming pool a little droplet for other is a huge amount of water for our bacteria right so small amount of water is enough for you to create
00:02:46 conditions necessary for mars to be admittable today and we believe that this is possible in the shallow subsurface and even the surface of mars polar region for a few hours per day during the spring mars is a very dry and cold place today and it may have supported a lot of water in the past the question is where did the water go
00:03:12 the idea for the project started about 28 years ago