back to article Where did all that water go? Mars was holding it wrong, say boffins

Mars is dry, frozen and arid because its water reserves dried up. A large chunk of that water was lost when the planet’s magnetic field collapsed and it could no longer shield itself from the energetic solar rays. And top of this, research out this week shows that a portion of that liquid was absorbed by its rocks, too. How …

  1. Mark 85

    "...whereas on early Earth hydrated rocks tended to float until they dehydrate,”

    So rocks float? Who knew....it really is an alien planet after all..

    1. jake Silver badge

      Well, yes. Rocks do float.

      Continents float rather nicely, in fact.

      So does pumice, but that's another story ...

      1. Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?
        Flame

        Re: Well, yes. Rocks do float.

        As does the lost Isle of Leshp, but that's another reality, never mind planet.

        Still would love a Pratchett Icon El Reg

      2. jelabarre59

        Re: Well, yes. Rocks do float.

        Continents float rather nicely, in fact.

        Like this one?:

        http://yamato.wikia.com/wiki/Floating_Continent_(2199)

    2. MyffyW Silver badge

      It's a God-awful small affair ....

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "So rocks float?"

      It just depends on what they float in...

  2. TrumpSlurp the Troll
    Trollface

    So there is water on Mars

    Just well concealed.

    All we need now is a giant advance in technology to allow us to squeeze water from a stone.

    1. Lotaresco

      Re: So there is water on Mars

      "All we need now is a giant advance in technology to allow us to squeeze water from a stone."

      No need for technology, just ensure that the first landing on Mars is a contingent of HMRC officials, accountants and system integrator financial officers. They can all suck fluids from a stone.

      1. Tigra 07
        Pint

        Re: So there is water on Mars

        So we're deporting government officials we don't like to Mars to die now?

        Has anyone presented this once in a lifetime offer to Damian Green yet?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Tigra 07

          Downvote

          Sincerely

          Not Damian Green

          1. Tigra 07

            Re: Tigra 07

            Dear Sir

            You are being deported to the Martian prison colony for your crimes. Please board the Virgin Deportation pod we have sent for you.

            Thanks

            Government of Earth

      2. Scroticus Canis
        Devil

        Re: So there is water on Mars - They can all suck fluids from a stone

        Just add lawyers to the list then even if they can't suck water or blood from a stone it's still a win-win situation.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So there is water on Mars

      I heard they gave up on blood.

      1. MachDiamond Silver badge

        Re: So there is water on Mars

        "I heard they gave up on blood."

        Lawyers are Black Ribboners now?

        (Where's that Pratchett Icon?)

    3. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: So there is water on Mars

      "All we need now is a giant advance in technology to allow us to squeeze water from a stone."

      I'd just grind it to powder and heat it.

  3. pareshsahoo

    There is a concept in Hindu mythology that one sage was angry with the Sea God so he drank up (CHALU) the entire water of the sea. But scientifically speaking, water has been changed to gaseous materials due to high level of molecular division of water due to high level of heat that burned the oxygen in the water and in the atmosphere. Water can be regenerated if we can be able to grow certain type of plants and by doing Yagna/Homo those are done in India. Not convinced?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "scientifically speaking, water has been changed to gaseous materials due to high level of molecular division of water due to high level of heat that burned the oxygen in the water and in the atmosphere. Water can be regenerated if we can be able to grow certain type of plants and by doing Yagna/Homo those are done in India. Not convinced?"

      No. The water was not split by heat but by UV and you can't burn oxygen out of anything, burning is the combining of oxygen (or some other reactive gas) with another material to produce a lower energy compound. And good luck finding a plant from this planet that can recombine oxygen and gaseous hydrogen. Water expired from plants comes from a combination of water from its roots and nighttime respiration of stored carbohydrates. There may well be some bacteria or archaia than can deal with H2 direct however, I don't know.

      Some lessons in basic science wouldn't do you any harm.

    2. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      The odd thing about Hindu mythology is that it describes so many concepts about the universe that we've only just figured out in the west. Go figure ...

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Alien

        "The odd thing about Hindu mythology is that it describes so many concepts about the universe"

        yes, if you cherry pick it. Vimanas and all of that. I like watching "History" channel too, quotes because it's sometimes less about history and more about 'whatever the hell they want to put on the network'. "Ancient astronaut theorists" and all of that. Sometimes it's palatable, and sometimes I can't stomach the nonsense. And sometimes they 'get it right' in between the "ancient astronaut theorists" parts SO well that I'm intrigued. So it's worth watching, if you can 'cherry pick' the good stuff from the weird/bad.

        [not to say UFOs nor ETs don't necessarily exist, I just don't buy into the Von Donnakinism, and if they ARE manipulating us, they're HOLDING US BACK and not "helping", to 'keep us in our place' and NOT become a threat to 'them' - that would make MORE sense, to me... sort of like in "The day the earth stood still", the ~original~ one, not the re-make, which missed the point entirely]

        Anyway... Mars still sounds like a great place to set up a permanent base or colony, if you can grind up and heat rocks for water and oxygen. That could work, using nuclear power. Sci Fi has suggested things like that for DECADES, and I think Sci Fi authors are pretty good at predicting what's possible.

        1. Not also known as SC
          Pint

          @BB

          Up-voting just for the rant at the History Channel. I particularly like the way they interrupt the programme for a commercial break every ten minutes or so and then spend the first few minutes recapping the bit they showed you before the adverts.

          1. Michael Thibault

            "then spend the first few minutes recapping the bit they showed you before the adverts"

            Where have I seen that before? Let me CNN... The question remains: is it that they're doing this to accommodate the fact that you've been conditioned to have a short-term memory a bit shorter than the length of a commercial break, or that they're conditioning you to have a short-term memory that is a bit shorter than the length of a commercial break, or that they're doing this to ensure that the conditioning that's left you with a short-term memory a bit shorter than the length of a commercial break sticks? Find out... after this commercial break.

        2. Mage Silver badge

          Re: Sci Fi authors are pretty good at predicting what's possible

          You were doing great till then. I'm an SF Author. I've read thousands of SF books. It's not Futurology. Fiction's (or Futurologist) predictions of the future are mostly rubbish. You'll notice the odd one that gets it right. It's not prediction, it's story.

          Most SF doesn't even much concern itself with actual science at all, but is simply fairy tales set in the future or off the Earth. Magic by another name.

          Dune? Psychic powers.

          Superheroes. Basically magic.

          Pern. Teleporting telepathic Dragons.

          Star Trek: Technobabble and the logically impossible.

          Avatar. Magic and lots of visuals.

        3. Uffish

          Re: cherry picking the good bits

          As with gambling, cherry picking the good bits can make it all seem very attractive.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Such as what exactly? There's nothing unique about Hinduism or it's "insights", it's simply common garden Paganism. Pretty much any pagan myths of any tradition are relatable to science by way of metaphor but the moment you use metaphor it ceases to be science. Utter b*llocks the lot of it.

  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    The good news from this is that the water has not left the planet. It's still there.

    IIRC the classic example of this is Copper Sulphate. Blue when hydrated, but heat up and it forms a white powder with steam given off.

    Of course how much energy you'll need to apply to what minerals you find to get that water is another question. You'd probably want to stay with drilling a conveniently located glacier.

    Still good news all round I think.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: The good news from this is that the water has not left the planet. It's still there.

      "Of course how much energy you'll need to apply to what minerals you find to get that water is another question"

      A well-designed regenerative process could probably do the job. The question is whether or not forming complex hydrates is endothermic or exothermic, and how much energy is needed to release the water.

      From what I just read, CuSO4 5(H2O) is exothermic when forming the hydrate, having a negative hydration enthalpy [and apparantly they're ALL negative, so it's exothermic to form the hydrate]. So it requires energy in to release the water. I didn't research very long, so maybe that chemical formula is wrong. I haven't done that kind of chemistry stuff since 1979...

      Still, if you have a large enough power plant (nuclear, let's say), producing sufficient heat to have a continuous process of extracting water from [and grinding up aqueous] rocks, and you use an efficient process that includes regenerative heat exchangers, it would probably be VERY practical.

      I'd also be interested in seeing what it would take to melt the Martian planet core sufficiently to get a magnetic field back. OK probably WAY beyond our technology level, but still an interesting idea.

      1. Michael Thibault
        Joke

        Re: The good news from this is that the water has not left the planet. It's still there.

        "I'd also be interested in seeing what it would take to melt the Martian planet core sufficiently to get a magnetic field back."

        Inductive heating, obviously. And a little english.

  5. silks

    Mars water managed by Thames Water perhaps? #Leakage

  6. artificial bitterness

    obligatory Monty Python reference

    Monty Python and The Holy Grail followers know that the only floating rocks are very small ones.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

  7. Bob Dole (tm)
    Alert

    Impact for SpaceX Mars mission?

    Does anyone know how this might impact SpaceX's Mars mission idea?

    My understanding is that they want to send equipment etc to mars in the first round to confirm water sources and start fuel manufacturing.

    1. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: Impact for SpaceX Mars mission?

      What Mars mission? Elon will have to raise a few billion more for the trip and not blow anything up in the mean time. That's billions more in capital for a project with no foreseeable return on the investment.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "When the Martian magnetic field weakened, the Sun’s rays could penetrate deeper, destroying more and more water molecules."

    Shows how lucky we are here on Earth; I mean, its not as though our magnetic field has been weakening slowly but steadily for the last 300+ years.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Your point?

  9. Emmanuel Moyana

    There was never water on Mars. Wondering how Mars becane so dry is going to lead those scientists to nowhere.

    1. HieronymusBloggs

      "There was never water on Mars."

      Citation please.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Boffin

        '"There was never water on Mars."

        Citation please.'

        ack - there's a LOT of evidence that there HAS been liquid water on Mars, not the least of which is the formation of sedimentary rock...

        https://geology.com/stories/13/rocks-on-mars/

        1. handleoclast

          Re: Sedimentary rock

          Yes, but...

          Loess is an æolian sedimentary rock. No water involved.

          However, there are other things which do indicate water was involved.

      2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        FAIL

        [Citation please]

        Random Commentard suffering from delusions of adequacy (and who probably can't even solve a differential equation) believes that magically, a single body in the solar system did not get hit by the very abundant H20 of the early solar system. It's not like any of the balls out there show revelatory signs of water abundance. Not at all, right?

  10. earl grey
    Happy

    where have all the waters gone?

    Where have all the waters gone?

    Long time passing

    Where have all the waters gone?

    Long time ago...

    apologies to Pete Seeger

    1. Hollerithevo

      Re: where have all the waters gone?

      Gone to basalt everyone

  11. Tom 7

    So plate techtonics saved us.

    There were some recent reports that there is massive amounts of water in the mantle. It seems not only does the molten earth create water it creates the magnetic field to keep it here.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like