the cause of mars' color

Recent research shows the possibility that Mars only recently developed its rusty hue, and it may have been caused by wind erosion rather than by water. More can be read here.

"Until recently, Mars' color was thought to be a product of liquid water, which scientists think flowed over the planet's surface billions of years ago, rusting rocks. But after the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the planet in 2004, they found evidence of certain minerals that would have been destroyed by water, suggesting that the red dust on Mars never came into contact with flowing water.

"That was a surprise to everybody," said Jonathan Merrison of the Aarhus Mars Simulation Laboratory in Denmark.

Now new research has found a possible mechanism to explain Mars' rusty color without liquid water. In fact, the study implies that the red tones on the planet are a relatively recent development. A simple grinding down of rocks from erosion could produce a red mineral that stains the dust on Mars, the new thinking goes."

"I think it means that Mars wasn't always red," Merrison said. "Before this work, I think most people in the field kind of thought the Martian surface was billions of years old and had always been red. This work seems to imply that it could be quite recent – millions of years instead of billions of years."