Previously, there was a lot of water on Mars, scientists agree. But now the surface of the planet is completely dry.
The authors of the new work claim that they have found the main factor. In their opinion, Mars is too small to hold a large amount of water.
The fate of Mars was sealed from the start.There is likely a threshold for the size of rocky planets to hold enough water to support life and plate tectonics, and Mars is not massive enough.
Kun Wang, assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The authors of the new work studied stable isotopesPotassium: It was used as an indicator for more volatile compounds such as water. Next, they assessed the potassium levels in 20 Martian meteorites that were found on Earth.
As a result, it turned out that the Red Planet lost more potassium and other volatiles than the Earth during its formation, but retained more volatile elements than the Moon.
Researchers have found a link between the numbervolatile elements and the mass of the cosmic body. And they stated that there is a mass threshold for rocky planets so that they can hold liquid water. Such planets should be larger than Mars.
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