Curiosity Finds Water On Mars
Welcome back my science brothers and sisters, today I come to you with an exciting new story. The Mars Rover Curiosity has found water in Mars soil, it is to the amount of two percent water by weight. "That means astronaut pioneers could extract roughly 2 pints (1 liter of water out of every cubic foot (0.03 cubic meters) of Martian dirt they dig up," said study lead author Laurie Leshin, of Renselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. Scientists have known for awhile that the red planet was previously habitable and very likely contained water, the amazing thing is that we have actually found water on the surface of Mars helping to verify this statement and tell us that there is still a chance for microbial life. Curiosity made this discovery in the Yellowknife Bay, a spot near where it landed, however it took awhile to reach the Yellowknife Bay due to other important tasks that came before in-depth soil analysis.
The Curiosity took samples of martian soil, then heated the soil to a temperature of 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit, and then it would examine the gases that evaporated out of the martian soil. The rover found that the soil contained large amounts of carbon dioxide, oxygen, normal water, and sulfur compounds, along with lots of "heavy water." Heavy water is water that contains heavy hydrogen atoms of deuterium. Deuterium is an isotope for hydrogen and it contains a proton and a neutron while normal hydrogen contains one proton and no neutrons. Heavy water can occur on our home planet of earth, although it is found much less commonly than regular water, at a rate of about one in every twenty million water molecules are heavy. Deuterium can also be found in the martian atmosphere, allowing us to deduce that the martian soil was acting as a sort of sponge and absorbing the deuterium in the air. Although this may seem like amazing news heavy water is not consumable and may cause death if someone was to consume it. Deuterium however can be used for fusion energy in the future as we have yet to create a deuterium power generator that creates a net gain of energy, however in the future we could hope to harness the energy of deuterium.
What does this all mean? I personally believe that this supplies us with hope that we can live on mars more realistically then possible before. We could find a way to safely extract the water from the soil while avoid the perchlorate that litters the soil (which is very bad for humans), this would allow extended stays to Mars. While this doesn't directly correlate to a higher chance of their to be life on Mars, I personally feel that this really helps the chances.
The Curiosity took samples of martian soil, then heated the soil to a temperature of 1,535 degrees Fahrenheit, and then it would examine the gases that evaporated out of the martian soil. The rover found that the soil contained large amounts of carbon dioxide, oxygen, normal water, and sulfur compounds, along with lots of "heavy water." Heavy water is water that contains heavy hydrogen atoms of deuterium. Deuterium is an isotope for hydrogen and it contains a proton and a neutron while normal hydrogen contains one proton and no neutrons. Heavy water can occur on our home planet of earth, although it is found much less commonly than regular water, at a rate of about one in every twenty million water molecules are heavy. Deuterium can also be found in the martian atmosphere, allowing us to deduce that the martian soil was acting as a sort of sponge and absorbing the deuterium in the air. Although this may seem like amazing news heavy water is not consumable and may cause death if someone was to consume it. Deuterium however can be used for fusion energy in the future as we have yet to create a deuterium power generator that creates a net gain of energy, however in the future we could hope to harness the energy of deuterium.What does this all mean? I personally believe that this supplies us with hope that we can live on mars more realistically then possible before. We could find a way to safely extract the water from the soil while avoid the perchlorate that litters the soil (which is very bad for humans), this would allow extended stays to Mars. While this doesn't directly correlate to a higher chance of their to be life on Mars, I personally feel that this really helps the chances.
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