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Dumb question probably, but here goes: Given the latest NASA news about water on Mars, as in, “flowing water on today’s Mars,” I am still trying to figure out
by brianstorms 11y ago
Dumb question probably, but here goes:
Given the latest NASA news about water on Mars, as in, “flowing water on today’s Mars,” I am still trying to figure out how that would work.
If water boils at 79ºF when the atmospheric pressure is lowered to 0.5psi, what would it boil at given Mars’ atmospheric pressure of 0.087psi?
How could Mars, which barely has an atmosphere, support liquid water? Why would not the water basically evaporate quickly if not boil off almost instantly?
- barkingcat 11y agoThose numbers are for pure water. If water is mixed with something, salts (not just sodium salt, but salts of other elements as well), etc, that changes the properties of the resulting mixture. The water on mars is probably "salty" mixture, maybe slush, but we don't really know what it's consisted of unless we have measurements / spectral analysis of the water mixture.
- m-app 11y agoIndeed. NASA showed the following slide, comparing the different temperatures: http://snpy.in/NdFEnS http://snpy.in/NdFEnS
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- skrisman 11y agoIt's a very briny water which can radically shift the phase diagram. Just like adding salt to boiling water in a pot changes the boiling point.
- Retra 11y agoYou can also have temporary streams that flow while they're evaporating. It just means you won't have long-term pooling anywhere.