All articles tagged with #water
Scientists stabilized a highly reactive carbene in water, confirming Ronald Breslow’s 1958 idea that vitamin B1 can form carbene-like structures to drive essential reactions, a breakthrough that could enable greener, water-based catalytic methods for drug and chemical production.
Scientists report new evidence for a hidden critical point in supercooled water, supporting a liquid-liquid transition between high- and low-density forms and revealing a slowed, critical region near -63°C at around 1000 atm. Using rapid heating and ultra-fast X-ray snapshots, researchers observed the transition before freezing, narrowing the boundary of this mysterious state and enhancing our understanding of water’s peculiar behavior and its broader implications.
Scientists using ultrafast X-ray lasers observed water in the deeply supercooled regime and found evidence for a critical point between two distinct liquid states that merge at that point; these fluctuations between the two forms help explain water’s abnormal properties, including why ice is less dense than liquid water and how water’s dynamics slow near the critical state.
Researchers using ultrafast X-ray lasers uncovered a hidden liquid-liquid critical point in supercooled water around -63°C at high pressure, where two liquid forms merge and trigger fluctuations that persist to everyday conditions, potentially explaining water’s unusual properties and its essential role for life.
NASA’s Perseverance rover, using the RIMFAX ground-penetrating radar, uncovered buried, ancient river delta deposits beneath Jezero Crater dating to about 3.7–4.2 billion years ago—one of the oldest indicators of past liquid water on Mars and a crucial clue to the planet’s early habitability.
Scientists report a vast water reservoir stored in the mineral ringwoodite about 700 kilometers beneath Earth's surface, forming a deep 'ocean' three times larger than all surface oceans. The finding, supported by seismic data from thousands of sensors and high-pressure lab experiments, challenges the idea that Earth's water came mainly from comets and suggests interior sources could help regulate surface oceans and geologic activity.
NASA will supply the Neutron Spectrometer System to the LUPEX mission (JAXA/ISRO) to search for hydrogen-rich water ice beneath the Moon’s surface near the South Pole by detecting neutron interactions in lunar soil; the NSS, which uses helium-3 in gas tubes to sense neutrons, can infer water up to about three feet underground and will ride a rover no earlier than 2028. This effort aims to map near-surface lunar water to support future human exploration and in-situ resource utilization, with NSS already flown on Peregrine (launched Jan 2024) though it didn’t land and with NSS planned for NASA’s VIPER rover and the MoonRanger mission to broaden the survey.
A Martian meteorite nicknamed Black Beauty (NWA 7034), among Earth’s oldest Martian samples, was scanned noninvasively with CT imaging, revealing hydrogen-rich iron oxyhydroxide clasts that comprise about 0.4% of the rock but up to 11% of its water content. The minerals point to past liquid water on early Mars and resemble hydrated phases seen in Perseverance samples, offering new insight into Mars’ ancient environment as NASA’s Mars Sample Return timeline faces delays.
A Nature Communications study led by Motohiko Murakami suggests hydrogen from early Earth became chemically bound inside the metallic core as iron hydrides, not as free gas or water. If hydrogen accounts for up to about 0.36% of the core’s mass, this could translate to roughly 45 oceans’ worth of water, implying Earth’s surface water may be just a fraction of a much larger deep-water inventory formed during planet formation.
Scientists used X-ray and neutron CT scans on the Martian meteorite NWA 7034 (Black Beauty) to non-destructively identify hydrogen-rich iron oxyhydroxide clasts (about 0.4% of the rock's volume), which account for roughly 11% of its water content. The findings support the presence of ancient surface water on Mars and demonstrate the value of non-destructive scanning for future Mars Sample Return work, though the mission is currently on hold.
NASA's Curiosity rover photographed a 1-inch coral-shaped rock on Mars, likely formed when mineral-rich fluids moved through bedrock fractures and were later etched by wind. The find adds to evidence that ancient Mars hosted liquid water and helps map how its landscape records environmental changes as Curiosity continues its Gale Crater mission.
A NASA-led study of Apollo-era lunar regolith using triple oxygen isotope analysis finds only a small fraction of Earth's ocean water could have been delivered by meteorites over the past four billion years, challenging the long-held view that late meteorite impacts were the primary source of Earth's oceans.
A Virginia Tech study finds California's water use from 2000 to 2020 was consistently lower than suppliers’ projections, with five-year demand overestimates averaging 25% and 20-year estimates about 74%. The drop in per-capita demand, driven by efficiency programs and landscaping rebates, decouples use from population growth and supports drought resilience, but it also implies forecasts may be too high, potentially raising costs if extra supply or infrastructure is needed. The research highlights ongoing opportunities to save water across residential, commercial, and agricultural sectors and the importance of accurate forecasting for long-term planning.
New high-resolution imagery from Mars orbiters shows delta-like, fan-shaped deposits at the Coprates Chasma end of Valles Marineris, suggesting Mars once supported a vast, Earth-sized ocean in its northern hemisphere, implying long-lasting surface water and potentially connected water systems in the planet’s past.
Scientists successfully observed atomic oxygen in water persisting for tens of microseconds and penetrating hundreds of micrometers, using advanced laser techniques, challenging previous assumptions about its reactivity and transport in liquids, and prompting a reevaluation of existing models.