Researchers from the United States and Europe have shown that the size of Mars does not allow to keep a sufficient amount of water so that the planet becomes suitable for life and in order to have a tectonics. The article of scientists has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
both the study of Martian meteorites and snapshots of the surface made by orbital apparatus and marshodes indicate that there are sometimes significant reserves of water on the planet. However, currently liquid water on the surface of Mars is missing. Researchers called many reasons for the lack of water on Mars, but none of the explanations have become dominant.
Researchers from the University of Washington in St. Louis together with colleagues from Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland on the basis of the content of stable potassium isotopes rated the distribution and prevalence of volatile substances in various solar system objects. Despite the relatively high volatility of potassium himself, it was used as a marker of even more volatile elements and compounds – such as water.
Scientists estimated the content of potassium-41 in 20 meteorites with confirmed Martian origin. It turned out that during its formation, the planet lost more potassium and other volatile substances than the Earth, but less than other smaller objects in size – for example, as an asteroid Vesta.
Researchers managed to establish a clearly pronounced correlation between the gravity of the body, the content of potassium isotop and the prevalence of water in it. According to the researchers, this suggests that the body weight in its formation determined the number of volatile substances held. According to their assumptions, for the rocky planets there is a limit, when it becomes possible to hold the required amount of water to create suitable conditions – and it is higher than the mass of Mars.