Mars Discovery: Scientists detect water vapor emanating from Mars

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On Wednesday, researchers said they had observed water vapor fleeing high up in Mars' thin atmosphere, offering tantalizing new clues as to whether life could have once been hosted by the Red Planet.


Liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars is suggested by the traces of ancient valleys and river channels. The water today is mostly locked up in the ice caps of the planet or buried underground.


But according to new research co-authored in the journal Science Advances by two scientists at Britain's Open University, some of it is vaporizing, in the form of hydrogen leaking from the atmosphere.


They detected the vapor by analyzing light passing through the Martian atmosphere using an instrument called the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery.


The device is traveling aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a joint mission between the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos.


"This fantastic instrument is giving us a never-before-seen view of water isotopes in the atmosphere of Mars as a function of both time and location," Manish Patel, senior lecturer in planetary sciences at the Open University, said.


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"Measuring water isotopes is a crucial element of understanding how Mars has lost its water over time as a planet, and therefore how the planet's habitability has changed throughout its history, he said. For Martian research, it has been a busy week.


China's Tianwen-1 probe entered the planet's orbit on Wednesday after launching from southern China last July, becoming the country's first Mars artificial satellite and achieving the first objective of its three-step mission-orbiting, landing and roving.


The day before, the "Hope" probe from the United Arab Emirates also successfully entered Mars' orbit, making history as the first interplanetary mission in the Arab world.