News Release

Mimetic Martian water is under pressure

Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Leeds

Researchers investigating whether liquid water could exist on Mars have provided new insight into the limits of life on the red planet.

A team led by Dr Lorna Dougan from the University of Leeds has analysed the structure of water in a magnesium perchlorate solution --what they refer to as "mimetic Martin water" -- to better understand how the liquid could exist on the Martian surface.

Martian soil samples gathered by the Phoenix Lander in 2009 found calcium and powerful oxidants, including magnesium perchlorate. This fuelled speculation that perchlorate brine flows might be the cause of channelling and weathering observed on the planet's surface.

Dr Dougan, from the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Astbury Centre said: "The discovery of significant amounts of different perchlorate salts in Martian soil gives new insight into the Martian 'riverbeds.'

"The surface temperatures on Mars may reach a high of about 20°Celcius at the equator and as low as -153° Celsius at the pole. With an average surface temperature of -55° Celsius, water itself cannot exist as a liquid on Mars, but concentrated solutions of perchlorate could survive these low temperatures."

Through experiments conducted at the ISIS Facility and computer modelling, the team was able to refine and analyse the structure of mimetic Martian water.

The outcome of their analysis, published today in Nature Communications, shows that the magnesium perchlorate solutions have a dramatic impact on water structure. The effect of the perchlorate is equivalent to pressurizing pure water to 2 billion pascals or more. The team observed that the ions in the water become partially segregated and it is likely this segregation is what stops the liquid from freezing.

Dr Dougan said: "We found these observations quite intriguing. It gives a different perspective of how salts dissolve in water. The magnesium perchlorate is clearly a major contributing factor on the freezing point of this solution and paves the way for understanding how a fluid might exist under the sub-freezing conditions of Mars.

"It raises interesting questions about the possibility of life on Mars. If the structure of Martian water is highly pressurised, perhaps we might expect to find organisms adapted to high pressure life similar to piezophiles on Earth, such as deep sea bacteria and other organisms that thrive at high pressure.

"This highlights the importance of studying life in extreme environments in both terrestrial and non-terrestrial environments so that we can fully understand the natural limits of life.

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Further information:

Please contact the University of Leeds press office at +44 (0)113 34 34196 or a.martinez@leeds.ac.uk for further information or to arrange interviews.

The research paper "Highly compressed water structure observed in a perchlorate aqueous solution" is published in Nature Communications 13 October 2017. (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01039-9 )

Contributing authors include: Samuel Lenton, Natasha H. Rhys, James J. Towey, Dr Lorna Dougan and Professor Alan K. Soper

The project was supported by a grant from the Engineering and Physics Sciences Research Council (EP/H020616/1). Dr L. Dougan is supported by a fellowship from the European Research Council (258259-EXTREME BIOPHYSICS). Experiments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron were supported by a beam time allocation from the Science and Technology Facilities Council under proposal number RB1300009.

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 33,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities.

We are a top 10 university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and in the top 100 for academic reputation in the QS World University Rankings 2018. Additionally, the University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-four of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. http://www.leeds.ac.uk

ISIS Research Facility

The ISIS Facility is a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The facility supports a national and international community of more than 3000 scientists for research into subjects ranging from clean energy and the environment, pharmaceuticals and health care, through to nanotechnology and materials engineering, catalysis and polymers, and on to fundamental studies of materials. http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk


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