There is a map that shows where we can find ancient traces of water on Mars.
The most comprehensive map of specific Martian mineral deposits has been created using data collected over the past decade.
Aqueous minerals are altered by the presence of water.
We know that there are clays on Mars, and we've seen some up close and personal. A bigger map of where they can be found will give us a better idea of the history of the water on Mars.
The map shows that we will find something interesting wherever we go on Mars.
There were many mineral deposits on Mars before the survey began. John Carter is a planetary scientist at the University of Paris-Saclay and Aix-Marseille University in France.
There are hundreds of thousands of mineral deposits on Mars according to the new map.
Carter thinks we have oversimplified Mars.
When studying the ancient terrains in detail, not seeing minerals is actually the oddest thing.
How much water has been present on Mars can be revealed by studying these minerals in greater detail.
Clays are formed on Earth when water and another mineral interact.
Water interacts with iron and magnesium. Water interacts with aluminum to form al-smectites.
The amount of water is also a factor.
The final mineral was changed by the amount of water. It is possible for scientists to estimate how much water was present when a mineral formed.
Carter and his colleagues have shown the presence of sulfate and carbonate salts through the use of data. The measurement of light reflected by an object is the same as the measurement of the mineralogy of the Mars surface.
According to the map, there is a lot of Mars that has been altered by water. The planet may be dry now, but the evidence shows that it has been sogginess for a long time.
It suggests that the previous reconstruction of its water history may have been too simplistic.
Some of the salts in the new map seem to be older than some of the clays, and in some regions, the two are mixed in a way that suggests they are present at the same time.
It will take a lot of analysis to untangle the implications of these findings.
The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we were led to believe. Carter says that no one process or simple timelines can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars.
The first result of our study was that. Mars has a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does.
Is water persistent or episodic? Was it there for a while or was it gone for a while?
Not much can be gleaned from a map of where the minerals are.
It gives us a better idea of how those minerals could have been formed if we knew where each mineral is.
The two papers need to be established before answering the questions.
Identifying the most interesting spots to send future missions, either crewed or uncrewed, in the quest to understand how Mars became a dry world, may have some answers about how Earth didn't.
Two papers have been published. You can find them here and here.
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