back to article Mars has more water than thought

It's a big day for extra-terrestrial water: not only are there hints of water on the moon, but now Carnegie says that the mantle of Mars might have water concentrations similar to those found on Earth. Specifically, the researchers say that rocks in Mars’ mantle could have concentrations of water between 70 and 300 parts per …

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  1. Katie Saucey
    Joke

    Well that finally answers...

    why a bottle of water is $2.25 at my work. They've had a Martian supplier for years!

    1. NomNomNom

      Re: Well that finally answers...

      It's unlikely, no-one has been to Mars yet and of the rovers they've sent none have returned (intentionally)

      1. Stoneshop

        @NomNomNom

        That's what *YOU* say.

    2. PM.

      Re: Well that finally answers...

      $2,25 ? A bottle ?

      This one must be from Pluto ...

  2. Martin Budden Silver badge
    Holmes

    Is anyone actually surprised by this?

    Mars and Earth formed next to each other, from the same cloud of dust, at the same time. Guess what - they turned out fairly similar!

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Is anyone actually surprised by this?

      So what? Vesta and Ceres are even more closely related, and they are nothing alike.

      1. imanidiot Silver badge
        Alien

        Re: Is anyone actually surprised by this?

        Vesta and Ceres aren't planets though. Their method of formation is different from that of Mars and Earth.

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: Is anyone actually surprised by this?

          Um...yes they are. "Dwarf planet" is still a planet. (Vesta is a candidate.) Both bodies have differentiated interiors, both achieved hydrostatic equilibrium (until that unfortunate catering on Vesta...) and with the exception of clearing their orbits, they meet all the requirements to be terrestrial planets. Vesta and Ceres both were altered by thier own Late Heavy Bombardment, and Ceres is thought to have geology shaped by (probably long dormant) tectonics. (We'll know soon enough; thanks, DAWN.)

          And yet...both bodies are really nothing alike. For that matter, Mars and Earth aren't, either. Earth appears to be unique in that we were impacted by Theia late in the birth of the solar system. This re-liquefied most of the crust, dramatically changed mineral distribution - and the size of our radioactive core - spun the planet up, and gave us a moon large enough to almost count as a double planet.

          That any of these bodies share anything but the most superficial similarities is astounding. Theia is probably what stopped Earth from becoming Venus; it would have blasted off an Early Earth’s atmosphere. What we had left then was low pressure enough that life eventually could transform it from Class Y to Class M.

          Mars and Ceres were just too small. They can’t hold on to an atmosphere for long enough; it just keeps bleeding away into space. (Or sublimating!) Without a magnetosphere, solar winds slowly ionise the atmosphere and erode it.

          Mars, Ceres and Vesta are all dead; the core quiet, the mantle cold. Their geology is a map of history; ours has been actively influenced by life – a lot of life – for billions of years. Life is so prolific on Earth that it has fundamentally altered not only our atmosphere, but the composition of geological structures ranging from sand to sedimentary rock, limestone to hydrogeology.

          Mars, Vesta and Ceres are an interest record (and result) of things that crashed into them. And therein lies my point; from the same cloud of dust, with orbits a stone’s throw away, these planets had totally different things crash into them. The balance of minerals, the % of volatiles, the mixing due to differentiation…the formal is completely different for each.

          So Mars has a similar % of water in its rocks to Earth? That is indeed interesting. I wonder quite how that happened?

          1. Chris007
            Facepalm

            @Trevor_Pott Re: Is anyone actually surprised by this?

            You said "Both bodies have differentiated interiors, both achieved hydrostatic equilibrium (until that unfortunate ** catering ** on Vesta...)"

            Why - just how bad was the buffet?

            1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge
              FAIL

              Re: @Trevor_Pott Is anyone actually surprised by this?

              Well, I believe the appropriate expression here is "herp, derp." :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is anyone actually surprised by this?

      writer - "the mantle of Mars might have water concentrations similar to those found on Earth."

      martin - "formed next to each other, from the same cloud of dust, at the same time. Guess what - they turned out fairly similar!"

      I don't see things like oceans from the Mars rovers.

      I guess rocks and ozone are pretty similar by the same definition.

      oh, the humanity...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Absoluablutely brilliant subhed. A pint, sir, a pint.

    1. jubtastic1
      Holmes

      Sedimentary my dear Coward.

  4. Mikel
    Happy

    Comets watered Earth

    They watered Mars too.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge

      Re: Comets watered Earth

      Arrest those comets! There's a hosepipe ban.

  5. Winkypop Silver badge
    Pint

    Of course they do

    How would Martians make beer otherwise?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      @Winkypop

      They didn't have to, us Dutch sent them Heineken (Youtube link) years ago ;-)

      1. Stoneshop
        Alien

        Re: @ShelLuser

        That was the worst action regarding interplanetary relations ever; I wonder why the Martians haven't unleashed horrible fiery death upon us.

        Apparently they've found a way to put it to good use, running it through something like the Piss Processing Plant in the ISS, but optimised for horse urine.

  6. Tom 7

    Given theres no intelligent life on mars

    there would be more water than thought.

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: Given theres no intelligent life on mars

      I'm not sure there's a great deal of intelligent life on this planet, either.

      1. NomNomNom

        Re: Given theres no intelligent life on mars

        There are almost 7 billion humans that are classified as intelligent life

    2. NukEvil
      Trollface

      Re: Given theres no intelligent life on mars

      Classified by the same idiots they're classifying...

    3. mhenriday
      Pint

      «Given there[']s no intelligent life on mars, there would be more water than thought. »

      I believe that holds true locally as well....

      Henri

  7. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Pint

    An apatite for H2O

    A polite ripple of applause, sir.

  8. Crisp
    Go

    I had to look up what the word apatite meant.

    But it was totally worth it to get the pun in the sub heading :D

  9. Bunker_Monkey
    WTF?

    Looking forward to Mars branded Evian!

  10. Mike Brown

    Of course there was once life on mars. We are that life. We left, due to massive geologocal events that would leave mars unihabitalbe many moons ago aboard a massive space craft that crash landed in Africa. We then set about colonising and replaceing the idigenous life of earth. All our religous texts talk about magical lands that we were cast out of. The garden of Eden was Mars. The barren lands are Earth. We are the aliens.

    scary thing is that there is a little part of me that thinks this is true!

    1. Wize

      Were we the...

      ...Golgafrincham ark fleet ship B?

    2. jubtastic1
      Alien

      Poppycock

      As any fule kno, we travelled inside the moon, parked it around earth in a synchronous orbit then threw everything on a one way trip down the gravity well.

      The eons may have reshaped our once gracefull and slender bodies, and the memory of our great exodus is long blurred into myth and fantasy, but our ancestral roots remain locked into our DNA, our body clocks still reverting to Martian time in the absence of contrary sensory cues.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not wanting to worry anyone

    But hydroxylapatite is found in bones and teeth.

    Has CMU been experimenting on Martians? And will their descendants swear vengeance on the Earthmen who disturbed their eternal rest and bring fire and destruction to our planet?

    Now that would be a press-release.

  12. Peter Gordon

    of course there is lots of water on mars

    its used by that machine that arnie uses to create an atmosphere!

  13. Local Group
    Trollface

    "Mars has more water than thought"

    It's probably time to think about a diuretic.

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