NASA 1976 Viking 2 lander picture of the Mars Utopian Plain.
Credit score: NASA/JPL-CalTech
The concept fashionable Mars is completely devoid of liquid water is being challenged by information gleaned from the Seventies NASA Viking 2 touchdown web site.
These findings present “a brand new perspective on the transient presence of liquid water on Mars, a key consider assessing planetary habitability.”
That’s the view of Vincent Chevrier, an affiliate analysis professor on the College of Arkansas’ Middle for House and Planetary Sciences. His case for the existence of liquid brines on Mars was just lately printed in Nature Communications Earth and Atmosphere.
Frost factoid
Chevrier’s analysis mixed Viking 2 meteorological information and pc modeling.
Picture credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/E. Vandencbulek
“The affirmation that brines can kind on the Viking 2 touchdown web site throughout late winter — albeit for brief durations — means that comparable processes could happen in different frost-bearing areas, particularly at mid-to-high latitudes” on the Purple Planet, Chevrier’s paper – “Perchlorate brine formation from frost on the Viking 2 touchdown web site” – states, “which may information the planning of future astrobiological investigations.”
The brand new looksee into Viking 2 information may imply the planet might need supported life tailored to a a lot colder, drier planet.
NASA’s Viking 2 landed on Mars in 1976. “It was the one mission that clearly noticed, recognized and characterised frost on Mars,” Chevrier says in a College of Arkansas analysis posting.
Nevertheless, frost on Mars tends to sublimate quickly, transitioning from a strong to a fuel rapidly, with out spending a lot time in a liquid state on account of atmospheric situations on the Purple Planet.
Picture credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/AndreaLuck
Transient window
In sifting by the Viking 2 meteorological information, mixed with information from the Mars Local weather Database, Chevrier discovered there was a quick window in late winter and early spring when the situations had been proper for the formation of brines.
That time frame spans one Mars month — roughly equal to 2 Earth months — the place the situations had been typically very best within the early morning and late afternoon.
“Robotic landers geared up with in situ hygrometers [to gauge moisture content in air] and chemical sensors may goal these seasonal home windows to straight detect brine formation and constrain the timescales over which these liquids persist,” Chevrier’s analysis paper notes.
Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars composed of 102 Viking Orbiter pictures of this enormous characteristic on the Purple Planet.
Credit score: NASA, USGS, Viking Mission
Brine stability
The analysis scientist provides that the methodology utilized — utilizing Viking 2 meteorological information to reconstruct brine stability – could possibly be prolonged to datasets from more moderen missions, corresponding to NASA’s InSight lander and the Curiosity rover, to appraise whether or not comparable processes happen in several climatic settings.
“Furthermore, this work underscores the necessity for future landers to deploy high-resolution imaging and thermal mapping to trace frost evolution in real-time,” Chevrier concludes.
To entry the analysis paper – “Perchlorate brine formation from frost on the Viking 2 touchdown web site” – go to:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02411-0
