The water-rich rust is called ferrihydrite. This would have formed in the presence of cold liquid water in the ancient past of #Mars, when the planet was wetter, and would have preserved this “watery signature” until today.
The discovery is due to new analyses, which combined
🔭 🧪 #planetsci
The discovery is due to new analyses, which combined
🔭 🧪 #planetsci
Reposted from
ESA Space Science
Have we been wrong about why #Mars is red⁉️
The Red Planet’s iconic colour has long been attributed to a dry rusty dust, but new research points to water-rich rust 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭🧪 #planetaryscience #planetsci
The Red Planet’s iconic colour has long been attributed to a dry rusty dust, but new research points to water-rich rust 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭🧪 #planetaryscience #planetsci
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Future missions, such as the Rosalind Franklin rover and the Mars Sample Return, could confirm these results by directly analyzing the Martian dust.
Interesting the science paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56970-z