In a weeks time Indias Mangalyaan spacecraft will enter Mars orbit, where it will image the planet and probe the composition of its surface and atmosphere, including testing for methane and measuring the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen. The D/H ratio could provide clues about the planets watery past. Water vapor present in the atmosphere would have been broken up by UV light from the Sun. H, being heavier, is more likely to escape Marss gravity and into space than D is. As a result, more D would remain than H. A high current D/H ratio could therefore indicate that Mars once had a watery atmosphere, presumably because it had a watery surface.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 12:39:53 +0000
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