The researchers reveal why they believe that Mars is red

The distinctive red color of Mars comes from mineral ferrihydrite, which is formed in the presence of fresh water, affirms a new study.

Ferrihydrite is also formed at a lower temperature than the other minerals that make up the surface of the well -named red planet, like hematite, which had previously been considered the main reason for its red shade.

“This suggests that Mars may have an environment capable of maintaining liquid water before moving from a wet environment to a dry environment billions of years ago,” NASA said in a press release this week.

NASA partially funded the study.

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The distinctive red color of Mars comes from mineral ferrihydrite, which is formed in the presence of fresh water, affirms a new study. (AFP via Getty Images)

Study researchers, published in Nature Communications this week, analyzed data from several Mars missions, including several Rovers of March, and the results were compared to laboratory experiences “where the team tested how light interacts with Ferrihydrite particles and other minerals under simulated Martian conditions,” said NASA.

“The fundamental question of the reason why Mars has been considered for hundreds, if not for thousands of years,” said the main study of the study, Adam Valantinas, in a statement.

Valantinas is a postdoctoral scholarship holder at Brown University which began study as a doctorate. Student at the Swiss University of Bern.

He continued: “From our analysis, we believe that ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in rock formations also. We are not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason why Mars is red, but we can now test this by using observation data and new laboratory methods to essentially make Martian dust in the laboratory.”

In this document published by NASA, a landscape of Mars is seen in a photo taken by the panoramic camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in 2003. (NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Cornell University via Getty Images)

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The main study by the study, Jack Mustard, described the study as a “possibility of opening a door”.

“This gives us a better chance of applying the principles of training and mineral conditions to resume time,” said Mustard, professor at Brown University. “What is even more important, however, is the return of the mars’s samples that are collected at the moment by the Rover Perseverance. When we collect them, we can really check and see if it is right.”

Research shows that Mars probably had a fresh but humid and potentially habitable climate in its former past.

The atmosphere of March is too cold, then to support life now, but billions of years ago, the planet had an abundance of water, said NASA, which is also highlighted in the ferrihydrite found in its dust.

Simulated Mars dust laboratory sample. (NASA / Adam Valantinas)

“These new discoveries indicate a potentially habitable past for Mars and highlight the value of the coordinated research between NASA and its international partners during the exploration of fundamental questions on our solar system and the future of space exploration,” said Geronimo Villanueva, Director of Strategic Science for Strategic Sciences of NASA.

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Valantinas said that what researchers “wanted to understand is the old Martian climate, the chemical processes on Mars – not only old – but also present”.

He continued: “So there is the question of habitability: was there ever life? To understand that, you must understand the conditions that were present at the time of the formation of this mineral. What we know of this study is that the evidence in the formation of ferrihydrite and for that happen, it had to be very different from oxygen.