{"id":731820,"date":"2026-06-12T11:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731820\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:09:18","slug":"marss-missing-water-and-atmosphere-finally-tracked-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731820\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars’s missing water and atmosphere finally tracked down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we know Mars to be a dry, barren, dead and desolate world. Its distinctive rust-coloured surface stretches out across the planet’s landscape.<\/p>\n

Overhead, the sky is dyed butterscotch by dust suspended in the thin carbon dioxide atmosphere<\/a> that barely clings to the planet.<\/p>\n

And yet things were once very different on the Red Planet. It was once much more like Earth.<\/p>\n

Rivers, lakes and even oceans of liquid water used to cover the surface of Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wrapped around this wet world was a thick atmosphere, a cocooning blanket keeping the planet insulated.<\/p>\n

\"AA view of Holden Basin on Mars, from inside a once water-filled reservoir. Credit: ESA\/DLR\/FU Berlin<\/p>\n

NASA video showing how much Mars has changed over the period of 4 billion years<\/p>\n

So, where did it all go?<\/p>\n

What happened to Mars\u2019s missing water and carbon atmosphere?<\/p>\n

That’s long been a question for planetary scientists studying Mars with orbiters around the Red Planet and rovers on the surface.<\/p>\n

Recently, it’s become apparent that the answer may have been found. One pair of studies in particular suggest both Mars’s water and its atmosphere retreated to an unlikely place: deep beneath its surface.<\/p>\n

Most intriguingly, this means both the water and the carbon are still on Mars. A future mission to the surface may be able to access them.<\/p>\n

\"AA dust devil on Mars, as seen by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona
\nMars\u2019s wet and windy past<\/p>\n

Centuries before the first space mission to Mars, astronomers, who could only observe the Red Planet from the ground through telescopes, speculated about what lay on the surface.<\/p>\n

Writers imagined a landscape covered with dense jungles of red-leaved foliage and vast alien civilisations.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Mariner 4<\/a> put those ideas to bed in 1964 when it flew past the planet for the first time. Its images revealed Mars to be a cold, dead world.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe remains of a river delta in Jezero Crater, where the Perseverance rover is currently exploring. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS\/JHU-APL<\/p>\n

Over time, new missions sent back higher resolution images of the planet. These revealed deep canyons and fan-shaped deltas, like those carved by rivers here on Earth. <\/p>\n

In 1997, the Pathfinder mission touched down in a field strewn with boulders apparently carried there by an ancient flood. <\/p>\n

Finally, in the early 2000s, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers<\/a> discovered sedimentary rocks and other minerals that can only be created in the presence of liquid water.<\/p>\n

This finally confirmed that yes \u2013 water once flowed across the surface of Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Opportunity rover found small spherules of hematite, which would require liquid water to form. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Calthech\/Cornell\/USGS<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, orbital spacecraft examined the planet\u2019s tenuous atmosphere, revealing an overabundance of heavy isotopes.<\/p>\n

As lighter isotopes are more likely to escape into space, this strongly indicates the planet has lost much of its atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Even more intriguingly, when they measured the relative abundance of carbon to krypton \u2013 an unreactive gas that\u2019s remained largely unchanged over Mars\u2019s 4.6-billion-year history \u2013 they found Mars has around a tenth the carbon of Earth or Venus. <\/p>\n

\"AA false-colour view of Mars using data captured by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft as it flew by the planet on 15 May 2026. Top right is the double-ring crater Huygens, measuring , or 470 km (290 miles) in diameter. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU<\/p>\n

Presumably, all three rocky planets started out with roughly the same primordial atmosphere. If so, this would mean Mars\u2019s atmosphere has lost at least 90 per cent of its carbon.<\/p>\n

This all indicated that once Mars was covered in water and possessed a carbon rich atmosphere. Then, around 3.6 billion years ago, both vanished.<\/p>\n

Mars\u2019s water and atmosphere make their escape
\n\"Today,Today, Mars only has a very tenuous atmosphere, though ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was able to detect a faint green air glow. Credit: ESA<\/p>\n

Initially, the leading theory was Mars\u2019s missing atmosphere and water were simply lost to space. On Earth, tectonic activity and our magnetic field<\/a> keep the atmosphere in check. <\/p>\n

Tectonic activity helps regulate our atmosphere, as shifting plates and volcanic activity bring new rocks to the surface which can interact and absorb water and the atmosphere, or drag old rocks back into the mantel.<\/p>\n

The magnetic field, meanwhile, helps guide the Sun\u2019s solar wind around our planet.<\/p>\n

\"Earth'sEarth’s (right) magnetic field protects our atmosphere from being stripped by radiation from the Sun, but Mars’s field is much weaker. Credit: NASA<\/p>\n

Mars has no plate tectonics and only a very weak magnetic field. There\u2019s no volcanism replenishing the gases, and the solar wind is free to strip away the planet\u2019s atmosphere and any water vapour along with it. <\/p>\n

Less atmosphere means a lower surface pressure, which means water evaporates more readily, allowing more and more water to escape.<\/p>\n

When researchers ran simulations to examine how the planet\u2019s climate evolved over time, it quickly became apparent that atmospheric loss couldn\u2019t be the only thing at play. <\/p>\n

It could only account for a fraction of Mars\u2019s missing water, and didn\u2019t explain why the carbon levels specifically had fallen so dramatically. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So where did the rest of Mars\u2019s water and atmosphere go?<\/p>\n

\"MarsMars as it might have looked 3 billion years ago, when it was still covered in water and had a significant atmosphere. Credit: Mark Garlick\/Getty\/Science Photo Library<\/p>\n

Mars\u2019s missing water revealed<\/p>\n

In August 2024, a team of geophysicists made a remarkable announcement \u2013 they\u2019d found Mars\u2019s missing water<\/a>, hidden deep beneath the ground for over three billion years.<\/p>\n

The team used data from NASA\u2019s InSight lander<\/a>, which spent four years from 2018 to 2022 detecting the tiny vibrations of Martian seismic activity, or \u2018marsquakes\u2019. <\/p>\n

As seismic waves travel through a planet, they are subtly changed by the density and structure of the rock they pass through. <\/p>\n

\"Artist'sArtist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n

The team were able to pick out and analyse these changes. Putting them together, they built a picture of what the planet looks like under the surface.<\/p>\n

What they found was enough water to flood Mars\u2019s surface to a depth between 1 and 2 km( about 1 mile). The water was around 11.5 to 20km (7 to 13 miles) underground, trapped between tiny cracks and pores in the rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cEstablishing that there is a big reservoir of liquid water provides some window into what the climate was like or could be like,\u201d says Michael Manga from University of California, Berkeley who took part in the study.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe insight lander found signs of water deep under the Martian surface. Credit: James Tuttle Keane\/Aaron Rodriquez\/Scripps Institution of Oceanography<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd water is necessary for life as we know it. I don\u2019t see why [the underground reservoir] is not a habitable environment. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly true on Earth \u2013 deep, deep mines host life, the bottom of the ocean hosts life. We haven\u2019t found any evidence for life on Mars, but at least we have identified a place that should, in principle, be able to sustain life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding the lost Martian atmosphere
\n\"AA selfie captured by NASA\u2019s Curiosity Mars rover on 25 October 2020 after drilling a rock sample from a spot nicknamed ‘Mary Anning’. In 2026, scientists announced the sample showed the greatest diversity of organic molecules yet found on Mars. NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/p>\n

Only a month later, another team of planetary scientists from MIT<\/a> revealed they may have tracked down Mars\u2019s missing atmosphere<\/a>, locating it, once again, hidden underground.<\/p>\n

Initally, the team weren\u2019t even investigating Mars, but our own planet. They were looking at a type of clay mineral called smectites. <\/p>\n

The grains of smectites are covered with tiny folds resembling the side of an accordion, which trap and retain carbon dioxide and methane molecules for billions of years (unfortunately the process occurs on much longer timescales than would be helpful against the current climate crisis).<\/p>\n

\"AA microscopic view of a terrestrial smectite clay. Credit: Anthony Priestas\/Boston University<\/p>\n

By chance, one team member, Oliver Jagoutz, happened to look at a map of Mars. He realised the surface was covered in smectite clay. Could they have captured Mars\u2019s missing atmosphere?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know this process happens, and it is well-documented on Earth. And these rocks and clays exist on Mars,\u201d says Jagoutz. \u201cSo, we wanted to try and connect the dots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tectonic activity creates smectites on Earth. That can\u2019t be the case on Mars, so the team looked into alternative ways the Martian smectites could form. <\/p>\n

The answer seems to be water dripping through Mars\u2019s crust and reacting with the rock. <\/p>\n

The Martian crust is mostly igneous rock \u2013 solidified lava \u2013 and is rich in olivine, the mineral that comprises peridot gemstones. <\/p>\n

\"OlivineOlivine is an iron-rich mineral commonly found in the upper mantle of Earth. Credit: Getty\/Underworld111<\/p>\n

Olivine is rich in iron, which reacts with the oxygen in water molecules. This creates iron oxide (i.e. rust, which gives Mars its red colour<\/a>) but also releases hydrogen. This in turn bonds with carbon dioxide dissolved in the water, creating methane. <\/p>\n

Over time, the process would transform the olivine into smectite, which then traps the methane. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The study found that if Mars were covered in a 1,100m (0.7 mile) deep layer of smectites, it would be able to store 1.7 bar of carbon dioxide \u2013 around 80 per cent of Mars\u2019s missing atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find that estimates of global clay volumes on Mars are consistent with a significant fraction of Mars\u2019 initial carbon dioxide\u00a0being sequestered as organic compounds within the clay-rich crust,\u201d says Joshua Murray, who led the study. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, Mars\u2019 missing atmosphere could be hiding in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe water interacts with the iron rich rocks, transforming it into a sequence of other minerals until finally creating smectite. Credit: MIT<\/p>\n

Could future Martian explorers access Mars\u2019s missing atmosphere and water?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret there are people who want to mount a human mission to Mars. Both NASA and the Chinese space agency have ambitions to set a human on the Martian surface within the next few decades.<\/p>\n

Both of these deposits could be a useful resource on such a mission.<\/p>\n

The water trapped underground has great scientific potential. Studying it would allow geologists insight into how that water shaped Mars, while astrobiologists could investigate it as a potential haven for Martian life. <\/p>\n

It could also be a vital resource for humans to drink, cooling and even being used to make rocket fuel.<\/p>\n

\"CouldCredit: Cokada \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Alas, this potential will almost certainly remain unrealised. <\/p>\n

The water is as much as 20 km (13 miles) below the surface, jammed into tiny cracks in the rock. <\/p>\n

While it may be possible to find a small amount of water closer to the surface for scientific study, extracting it in bulk from that depth would be challenging on Earth, let alone another planet.<\/p>\n

The methane trapped in the smectites, however, is much closer to the surface. It could be possible that future Martian explorers could one day mine the clay of Mars, and use the methane trapped there as fuel.<\/p>\n

It might not be too long, then, before at least some of Mars\u2019s missing atmosphere and water are returned to the surface.<\/p>\n

\"AA full colour image of Mars taken by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. Credit: ESA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today we know Mars to be a dry, barren, dead and desolate world. Its distinctive rust-coloured surface stretches…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-731820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}