Searching for Water in Mars' Salty Soil
The history of water on Mars is an ongoing mystery. The canals of Percival Lowell were long ago shown to be optical illusions and fantasies based on averted imagination. But the views we've obtained through spacecraft with high-resolution cameras and the data our robotic avatars have collected on the surface show many geological features that clearly indicate that water once flowed on the rusty planet. We've also seen transient features that might indicate that water occasionally still flows today. Conditions on the surface prevent liquid water from lasting there for long. So, where is the water that once flowed and pooled? Has it been lost to space under the harsh conditions on the surface? Or is much of it still there, hidden under the surface or transformed into a substance more tolerant of the extreme conditions? Our speaker this month, Andrew Shumway from the University of Washington, is an expert on this topic, and he'll be filling us in on some of the latest scientific clues gathered toward resolving this mystery. Andrew's description of his talk is below.
Is there water on Mars? There is plenty of evidence for flowing water in Mars’ distant past, but today, the Red Planet is mostly frozen and dry. Life as we know it needs water to survive, so understanding the elusive role of water on Mars will help us determine if the planet was ever habitable, and could pave the way for future human exploration. Although pure liquid water can not exist on Mars today, naturally occurring salts across the surface may draw water down into the soil and dissolve to form persistent, hypersaline brines. How much water is available in these brines? Can they remain liquid despite Mars' cold, arid climate? Could they possibly even support life? In this talk, we’ll begin to unravel the mysteries of water on Mars through laboratory experiments at the University of Washington and new discoveries made by NASA’s Perseverance Rover.
About Andrew Shumway
Andrew Shumway is a planetary scientist and astrobiologist pursuing a PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studies the geochemistry and potential habitability of briny water on Mars. As a member of NASA’s Perseverance rover science team, Andrew helps operate PIXL (the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), using it to study the composition of rocks and regolith on Mars. Back on Earth, Andrew’s hobbies include birdwatching, kayaking, and snowboarding in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.