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Science

electric_blue68

(22,412 posts) Thu May 15, 2025, 06:46 PM May 15

Hmm...Anyone with enough chemistry kmowledge to guess why some scientists think Mars water broke down into.... [View all]

hydrogen and oxygen and vanished?

Reccent news I just read.

Could a thinning atmisphere contribute to that with stronger sunlight hitting the then waters?

12 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Hmm...Anyone with enough chemistry kmowledge to guess why some scientists think Mars water broke down into.... [View all] electric_blue68 May 15 OP

It doesn't really need that type of very strong reaction (splitting H2O) to cause water to disappear erronis May 15 #1

Mars is smaller, has substantially less gravity, hence the escape velocity for molecules is much smaller Bernardo de La Paz May 15 #2

The Only Thing I Can Think Of... ProfessorGAC May 15 #3

On earth, hydrolysis creates oxygen and hydrogen by applying an electrical charge through water. John1956PA May 15 #4

In our JHS Science Class we had a Hydrolysist machine! electric_blue68 May 15 #8

Did the teacher allow you to transfer some of the gases to test tubes? John1956PA May 15 #10

Interesting! No, we didn't do that. It was very cool to have that demonstration. electric_blue68 May 15 #11

Hubble Helps Solve The Mystery of Mars' Escaping Water (NASA video) sl8 May 15 #5

Thing is, scenarios based on a thin atmosphere don't explain how it got thin in the first place; except Bernardo de La Paz May 15 #6

I would expect... Chemical Bill May 15 #7

Thanks, everyone! 👍 🔭 ⚗️ electric_blue68 May 15 #9

Short-wavelength UV, particularly before there was enough O2 to form an ozone shield, is all that's needed. eppur_se_muova May 16 #12