2 years, 1 month ago
Is there water vapor in the atmosphere of Mars? Have scientist been able to confirm or deny the existence of water atmosphere vapor?
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M$1 Answer
There is water vapour in Mars' atmosphere but it is a very minute amount. It contains just 0.03% water vapour (compared to Earth's 0-7%).
Most of Mars' water exists on frozen ice on the planet's surface.
Most of Mars' water exists on frozen ice on the planet's surface.
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M$
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Well from what I've read the process of detecting water vapour and other gases in atmospheres of planets uses a spectrometer.
A spectrometer works by taking in light, and based on how the light is coloured, the individual atoms and molecules (and their frequency) can be determined.
For atmospheres NASA quotes: "Spectroscopes can determine atmospheric composition by analyzing the wavelengths of absorbed sunlight that passes through a given section of the atmosphere. When light passes through a gas, like oxygen or methane, the gas absorbs some of the wavelengths. This is viewed as different colors, depending on the gas."
What was the process that scientist used to determine water vapor? Did they use lasers to measure refraction and spectrum analysis of the light to determine elements of hydrogen and oxygen?
Will you describe the process for the full five star vote?
Nope, but thanks for telling me. Glad it was worth the effort. :)
Something like that. More information on the process here:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1926ApJ....63..133A