{"id":23367,"date":"2023-05-11T16:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=23367"},"modified":"2023-05-11T16:00:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T15:00:10","slug":"ou-space-scientists-provide-new-insight-into-the-evolution-of-mars-atmosphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/science-mct\/ou-space-scientists-provide-new-insight-into-the-evolution-of-mars-atmosphere\/","title":{"rendered":"OU space scientists provide new insight into the evolution of Mars\u2019 atmosphere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists at The Open University (OU) have analysed isotopic measurements<\/a> in the atmosphere of Mars, providing new information on the evolution of the Martian climate throughout history and the origin of surface organics on Mars.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere of Mars, which is mostly made of carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>), is relatively enriched in \u2018heavy\u2019 carbon (13<\/sup>C) with respect to Earth due to the preferential escape of \u2018light\u2019 carbon (12<\/sup>C) to space over several billion years.<\/p>\n

Scientists from the OU\u2019s Atmospheric Research and Surface Exploration group have analysed data from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission, which indicate that Martian carbon monoxide (CO) is depleted in heavy carbon instead.<\/p>\n

Dr <\/strong>Juan Alday<\/strong><\/a>, lead author of the study which is published in <\/strong>Nature Astronomy<\/strong><\/a>, explains:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe key for understanding why there is less 13<\/sup>C in CO lies in the chemical relationship between CO2<\/sub> and CO. When CO2<\/sub> molecules are destroyed by sunlight to form CO, 12<\/sup>CO2<\/sub> molecules are more efficiently destroyed than 13<\/sup>CO2<\/sub>, leading a depletion of 13<\/sup>C in CO over long periods of time.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the small amount of CO in the atmosphere of Mars (less than 0.1%), these new measurements have important implications to our understanding of the evolution of the martian climate and can help determine the historical climate conditions that enabled the presence of liquid water on the surface of early Mars.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr Alday commented:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not know what the atmosphere of early Mars was like nor what conditions allowed liquid water to flow on the surface. The isotopes of carbon on Mars\u2019 atmosphere can help us estimate how much CO2<\/sub> there was in the past. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe new measurements by the ExoMars TGO suggest that less CO2<\/sub> has escaped the planet than previously thought and provide new constraints on the composition of this early atmosphere of Mars.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Recent measurements made by NASA\u2019s Curiosity Rover on the surface revealed a depletion of 13<\/sup>C in surface organic material.<\/p>\n

Manish Patel<\/a>, who leads the OU ExoMars research group, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a long-standing debate on whether<\/em> organic material on the surface of Mars was produced by biological or non-biological processes. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that both atmospheric CO and surface organics share this 13<\/sup>C-depleted isotopic signature that Juan has measured may indicate these organics are more likely to be non-biological in origin, although other origins cannot be ruled out based solely on this information.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Libby Jackson, Head of Space Exploration, UK Space Agency said: <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK has played a key role in the development of the Trace Gas Orbiter. Since its launch in 2016, the UK Space Agency has provided more than \u00a31.4 million towards operations and more than \u00a35 million towards data analysis. The publication of this paper showcases the best of UK space science.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDr Juan Alday is a promising UK Space Agency-funded Postdoctoral researcher at the Open University, and a great example of the talent we are continuing to support across our institutions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The OU co-leads the NOMAD spectrometer on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission and has a significant involvement in the ACS spectrometer and CaSSIS stereo imager on the same mission, funded through support from the UK Space Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists at The Open University (OU) have analysed isotopic measurements in the atmosphere of Mars, providing new information on the evolution of the Martian climate throughout history and the origin of surface organics on Mars. The atmosphere of Mars, which is mostly made of carbon dioxide (CO2), is relatively enriched in \u2018heavy\u2019 carbon (13C) with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[861,1525],"class_list":["post-23367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-mct","tag-faculty-of-stem","tag-news-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}