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On ancient Mars, carbon dioxide ice kept the water running. Here's how

Space
Summary
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74% Informative

A researcher may have figured out how Mars was able to support rivers and seas even after the planet had begun to grow cold and its atmosphere thin.

It's all thanks to a cycle of water and carbon dioxide ice settling onto the south polar cap.

During Martian winter, a layer of carbon-dioxide ice settles out on top of the polar caps of water ice.

The rivers would still freeze as they popped up above ground, but the volume of water was such that it would keep burrowing under this ice.

The model is literally the same carbon dioxide cycle that we see on Mars today .

Eventually, Mars grew too cold for even this meltwater process to take place.

The days of widespread liquid water on the Red Planet have been over for billions of years .

Buhler 's research was published on Nov. 1 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets .

VR Score

86

Informative language

91

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44

Article tone

informal

Language

English

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48

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not offensive

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Time-value

long-living