Mars Mystery: How Red Planet's Dust Storms Caused Rivers, Seas To Dry Up

Mars' dust has become a major focus in NASA and other space agencies' exploration of the Red Planet for good reason.

Data obtained by eight spacecraft either orbiting or exploring Martian soil revealed many details about the massive dust storm that enveloped the entirety of Mars in the summer of 2018. According to studies, Mars' dust storms have affected the planet's water, winds and climates for billions of years and are expected to have an impact on future weather and solar power.

One area scientists are currently focusing on is what role the dust storms could have played in the loss of Mars' water. Evidence has already shown that the Red Planet had hosted bodies of water during the early days of its formation billions of years ago, but scientists are still trying to figure out how it all disappeared.

Researchers at NASA, in collaboration with the ESA (European Space Agency) and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, offered up the explanation that dust storms may have caused a disruption in Mars' water cycle until eventually all its rivers, lakes and seas dried up.

Geronimo Villanueva, a Martian water expert at NASA Goddard, said in a statement on NASA's website that Mars' global dust storm of 2018 will give them a better understanding of how these events resulted in the loss of Martian water. He and his colleagues found that powerful dust storms seemed to push water vapor to a much higher elevation that its usual altitude of 12 miles (20 kilometers).

If water vapor is lofted to higher altitudes, its molecules could be broken down by solar radiation until its elements are left drifting into space.

With the water vapor pushed to altitudes of at least 50 miles (80 kilometers), water cannnot condense and return to the surface like it does on Earth in the form of rain or snow. The same might have been true of Mars billions of years ago, but the global dust storms prevented the cycle from continuing.

"When you bring water to higher parts of the atmosphere, it gets blown away so much easier,” Villanueva explained.

In a report published in April in the journal Nature, Villanueva and his fellow researchers revealed that they found proof of water vapor leaving the atmosphere following a dust storm.

By using the ESA and Roscosmos' ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, they were able to measure water molecules at varying altitudes before and after Mars' global dust storm last year.

With this possibility in mind, scientists will continue to determine how much water exactly once covered the Red Planet and how long it took before Mars dried up.

To learn more about NASA's ongoing Mars mission, check out the video below.