Hygroscopic Salts and the Potential for Life on Mars
| Autor: | Alfonso F. Davila, D. Möhlmann, Jochen Jänchen, Sergio Valea, Carmen Ascaso, Luis Gago Duport, Alberto G. Fairén, Riccardo Melchiorri, Christopher P. McKay, Asunción de los Ríos, Jacek Wierzchos |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: |
Extraterrestrial Environment
Water activity Deliquescence Evaporites Climate Partial Pressure Sodium Endoliths Inorganic chemistry Mars Salt (chemistry) chemistry.chemical_element engineering.material Chloride Absorption Hygroscopic Agents Exobiology medicine Relative humidity Atacama Desert chemistry.chemical_classification Temperatures Magnesium Water Humidity Mars Exploration Program Life. Astrobiology Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) Steam chemistry Space and Planetary Science engineering Halite Hygroscopic salts Salts medicine.drug |
| Zdroj: | Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC instname |
| ISSN: | 1557-8070 1531-1074 |
| DOI: | 10.1089/ast.2009.0421 |
| Popis: | 13 páginas, ilustraciones y tablas estadísticas. Hygroscopic salts have been detected in soils in the northern latitudes of Mars, and widespread chloride-bearing evaporitic deposits have been detected in the southern highlands. The deliquescence of hygroscopic minerals such as chloride salts could provide a local and transient source of liquid water that would be available for microorganisms on the surface. This is known to occur in the Atacama Desert, where massive halite evaporites have become a habitat for photosynthetic and heterotrophic microorganisms that take advantage of the deliquescence of the salt at certain relative humidity (RH) levels. We modeled the climate conditions (RH and temperature) in a region on Mars with chloride-bearing evaporites, and modeled the evolution of the water activity (aw) of the deliquescence solutions of three possible chloride salts (sodium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride) as a function of temperature. We also studied the water absorption properties of the same salts as a function of RH. Our climate model results show that the RH in the region with chloride-bearing deposits on Mars often reaches the deliquescence points of all three salts, and the temperature reaches levels above their eutectic points seasonally, in the course of a martian year. The aw of the deliquescence solutions increases with decreasing temperature due mainly to the precipitation of unstable phases, which removes ions from the solution. The deliquescence of sodium chloride results in transient solutions with aw compatible with growth of terrestrial microorganisms down to 252 K, whereas for calcium chloride and magnesium chloride it results in solutions with aw below the known limits for growth at all temperatures. However, taking the limits of aw used to define special regions on Mars, the deliquescence of calcium chloride deposits would allow for the propagation of terrestrial microorganisms at temperatures between 265 and 253 K, and for metabolic activity (no growth) at temperatures between 253 and 233 K. This work was supported by grants CGL2006-04658/BOS and CGL2007-62875/BOS from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and grant PIE-631A from the CSIC (Spanish Research Council), and by the Helmholtz Association through the research alliance ‘‘Planetary Evolution and Life.’’ We greatly appreciate the comments and suggestions of Dennis Powers and an anonymous reviewer, which greatly improved the original manuscript. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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