A team of scientists has made a groundbreaking discovery about Mars’ lost atmosphere. According to their research, published in the journal Science Advances, up to 80% of the planet’s ancient carbon dioxide could be trapped inside sedimentary rocks. This finding suggests that the Martian surface may have once had a thick atmosphere capable of supporting liquid water.
The researchers focused on smectite, a clay mineral found on Earth that can store massive amounts of carbon dioxide. They believe similar processes occurred on Mars around 3.5 billion years ago, when abundant water flowed across the planet’s surface and CO2 was present in every nook and cranny.
Using existing knowledge from Earth, the scientists extrapolated that if Martian sedimentary rocks contain sufficient smectite clays, they could store significant amounts of methane. This discovery could potentially provide a new source of rocket fuel for future missions to Mars.
According to Oliver Jagoutz, MIT geology professor and lead author of the paper, “We show that similar processes likely operated on Mars, and that copious amounts of atmospheric CO2 could have transformed to methane and been sequestered in clays.”
Source: https://futurism.com/the-byte/mars-surface-covered-rocket-fuel