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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 114,
E00E03,
11 PP., 2009
doi:10.1029/2009JE003362
Possible physical and thermodynamical evidence for liquid water at the Phoenix landing site
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Applied Physics Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Geological Survey of Canada, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Applied Physics Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Department of Chemistry, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Carl Sagan Center, SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, USA
NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, USA
Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Centro de Astrobiología, Madrid, Spain
Department of Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California, USA
Department of Chemistry, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA
The objective of the Phoenix mission is to determine if Mars' polar region can support life. Since liquid water is a basic ingredient for life, as we know it, an important goal of the mission is to determine if liquid water exists at the landing site. It is believed that a layer of Martian soil preserves ice by forming a barrier against high temperatures and sublimation, but that exposed ice sublimates without the formation of the liquid phase. Here we show possible independent physical and thermodynamical evidence that besides ice, liquid saline water exists in areas disturbed by the Phoenix Lander. Moreover, we show that the thermodynamics of freeze-thaw cycles can lead to the formation of saline solutions with freezing temperatures lower than current summer ground temperatures on the Phoenix landing site on Mars' Arctic. Thus, we hypothesize that liquid saline water might occur where ground ice exists near the Martian surface. The ideas and results presented in this article provide significant new insights into the behavior of water on Mars.
Received 7 February 2009; accepted 7 July 2009; published 14 October 2009.
Citation: (2009), Possible physical and thermodynamical evidence for liquid water at the Phoenix landing site, J. Geophys. Res., 114, E00E03, doi:10.1029/2009JE003362, [printed 115(E1), 2010].
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