Deliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere: Difference between revisions

Deliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere (edit)

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Deliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere: Difference between revisions

Deliquescing salts taking up moisture from the Mars atmosphere (edit)

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Revision as of 13:38, 23 May 2019 (edit) Robertinventor (talk \| contribs) (→‎Hydrogen peroxide based life that may avoid liquid water) ← Older edit		Revision as of 02:53, 3 December 2019 (edit) (undo) Robertinventor (talk \| contribs) No edit summary Newer edit →
Line 2: By Elizabeth Howell - Astrobiology Magazine (NASA) Aug 28, 2014</ref> This is of especial interest since perchlorates deliquesce more easily than chlorides and at a lower temperature, so they could, potentially, take up water from the atmosphere more readily. ~~It is not yet clear how they formed.~~ Sulfates, chlorides and nitrates can be made in sufficient quantities by atmospheric processes, but ~~this~~the same mechanism with atmospheric chlorine doesn't seem sufficient to explain the observed abundances of perchlorates on Mars.<ref>{{cite journal\|url = http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103513005058 \| doi=10.1016/j.icarus.2013.11.031 \| bibcode=2014Icar..231...51S \| volume=231 \| title=The formation of sulfate, nitrate and perchlorate salts in the martian atmosphere \| year=2014 \| journal=Icarus \| pages=51–64 \| last1 = Smith \| first1 = Megan L. \| last2 = Claire \| first2 = Mark W. \| last3 = Catling \| first3 = David C. \| last4 = Zahnle \| first4 = Kevin J.}}</ref> The perchlorates may be formed by interactions of UV and ionizing radiation with the soil. In particular silicon dioxide acts as a photocatalyst to boost the production of perchlorates in experiments using Martian regolith simulants <ref>Carrier, B.L. and Kounaves, S.P., 2015. [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2015GL064290 The origins of perchlorate in the Martian soil]. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(10), pp.3739-3745.</ref> Though there is little by way of water vapour in the Mars atmosphere, which is also a near vacuum - still it reaches 100% humidity at night due to the low nighttime temperatures. This effect creates the Martian morning frosts, which were observed by Viking in the extremely dry equatorial regions of Mars.