Presence of Icy Clouds in Mars Could Have Made Development of Lakes and Rivers Possible

The view from NASA's Perseverance rover, which recently landed on Mars, neatly summarizes one of the great mysteries of modern space science: Today, Mars is a desert world, but the rover is seated right next to an ancient river delta.

Water flows rapidly and unevenly between seas, atmosphere, and land on Earth, covering almost three-quarters of the surface and flowing in swirls and eddies that leave some areas completely dry (the Sahara) and others drenched (the Amazon). On the other hand, Mars had far less water on the surface, even at the height of its habitability. In Kite's model, as water vapor reaches the atmosphere, it lingers.

"Our model predicts that once water enters the early Martian atmosphere, it will remain there for a long time - closer to a year - allowing long-lived altitude clouds to form," Kite said.

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