Greenhouse effects caused due to excessive Hydrogen on Mars may have raised the planet's temperatures, facilitating the presence of liquid water on the Red Planet.
Previous studies and discoveries by Mars Curiosity Rover led researchers to conclude that Mars once hosted flowing water. Now, researchers have found that hydrogen-caused greenhouse effect may have raised temperatures on the Martian soil, facilitating the formation of liquid water on the Red Planet, according to a press release.
According to the researchers, molecular hydrogen present on Mars, together with carbon dioxide and water may have created a greenhouse effect on the planet 3.8 billion years ago. This effect raised temperatures, allowing liquid water to flow through the planet.
Previously, researches attempted to create warm temperatures for water flow by using climate models comprising of carbon dioxide and water. These attempts were unsuccessful. However, in the new study, researchers used a model comprising of hydrogen along with carbon dioxide and water to show that an atmosphere with sufficient amounts of all these three elements was enough to warm Mars above its freezing temperature. This would allow water to flow freely on the Martian surface over 3.8 billion years ago and form the ancient valley networks, such as Nanedi Valles, much the way sections of the Grand Canyon snake across the western United States today.
"This is exciting because explaining how early Mars could have been warm and wet enough to form the ancient valleys had scientists scratching their heads for the past 30 years," said Ramses M. Ramirez, a doctoral student in the statement. "We think we may have a credible solution to this great mystery."
An alternative theory explaining the formation of the Martian Valleys is that large meteorites bombarded the planet, generating steam atmospheres that then rained out. However, this theory was ruled out as the effect wouldn't have been large enough to create adequate water that led to the formation of the valleys.
"We think that there is no way to form the ancient valleys with any of the alternate cold early Mars models," said Ramirez. "However, the problem with selling a warm early Mars is that nobody had been able to put forth a feasible mechanism in the past three decades. So, we hope that our results will get people to reconsider their positions."
To prove the possibility of a theory that suggested gas levels from volcanic activity could have created enough hydrogen and carbon dioxide to form a greenhouse effect and raise temperatures sufficiently to allow for liquid water, Ramirez and his colleague created a one-dimensional model and then ran it using new hydrogen absorption data and used it to recreate the conditions on early Mars, a time when the sun was about 30 percent less bright than it is today.
"It's kind of surprising to think that Mars could have been warm and wet because at the time the sun was much dimmer," Ramirez said. "The hydrogen molecule is symmetric and appears to be quite boring by itself. However, other background gases, such as carbon dioxide, can perturb it and get it to function as a powerful greenhouse gas at wavelengths where carbon dioxide and water don't absorb too strongly. So, hydrogen fills in the gaps left by the other two greenhouse gases."
Findings of the study were published online in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.