What would happen to an apple on the surface of the planet Mars?
It’s a striking vision: a bright green or red juicy apple against the barren red rocks of Mars. But an apple on the martian surface would shrivel like a raisin in a matter of minutes. Its juices would boil away into vapor almost immediately. With its liquid gone, the apple would essentially become mummified.
Image Credit: USDA
What’s more, Mars is colder than Earth. That dried-out apple on Mars would freeze. Soon, you’d have a freeze-dried mummy of an apple.
But here’s the good news, apple lovers. The apple wouldn’t become rotten. You need bacteria to enable something to rot, and there are no bacteria on Mars.
On the other hand, Mars does have a lot of wind. So the apple might be buried by blowing dust. In that case, the martian soil would corrode the apple – in about a million years.
If the apple didn’t get buried in a martian windstorm, it’d be exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation from the sun. That would turn the apple’s skin black and tarry. But, underneath its blackened skin, the freeze-dried apple would be unchanged.
So you could come back a thousand years later, brush off the dust – or scrape off the tar – and eat the apple. Yummy!
And that’s the fate of an apple left behind by a future astronaut on the surface of the planet Mars.
I <3 Science!
Oh, now you’ve started something … a future Mars traveler, probably now in 4th grade, is reading this blog; you’ve just planted a seed in her brain for ‘stupid human tricks to do on Mars with fruit.’ ;)
Ha!
I find it difficult to believe something like this hasn’t already been done in a lab. In which case – let’s see it on YouTube!
If you find it there, let me know!
What happened to the idea that life may have come from Mars in the form of bacteria or viruses carried on some ejecta that reached escape velocity and landed here as a meteor?
It’s still out there. A possibility. Hard to prove …
Hard to prove… kinda like this apple story. It rides on the same old idea that if an astronaut was blown out of an airlock, all the water in their body would instantly boil and they’d explode. Fortunately, that’s not what really would happen.
closest I could find:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOEwm-593gM
Haha!
Really dumb question: What is Mars wind made of?
This would all depend on the season and where the longitude and latitude the apple is placed on Mars? If the temperature is lets say, 0° C, wouldn’t the water stay frozen within the apple? I don’t understand how water can boil if the air temp is around or below freezing point. Would it be due to the high level radiation? And, wouldn’t the radiation poison the apple to its core (cosmic rays and solar winds)? I’m probably just making myself look dumb here. lol
A bit of research about why the water would boil and I think I have answered my own question. In case anyone else is wondering (though I could be wrong) its due to Mar’s low atmospheric pressure. So the water will either freeze, or boil depending on the temperature and pressure of the region. I read it can get as low as -200F (at the poles) but also in rare mars summer instances can reach 80F.
“The air pressure is so low on Mars that even in the most favorable spots, where the pressure is higher than average, liquid water is restricted to the range 0 to +10 °C,” says Bob Haberle of the NASA/Ames Research Center. “Fresh water on Mars begins to boil at 10 °C. Here on Earth we can have water anywhere between 0 and 100 °C — that range is reduced by a factor of ten on Mars.”
Nope…the only dumb question is the one that doesn’t get asked.
“Boiling” is the term used to indicate ‘turning from a liquid to gaseous state”, which can be accomplished in an atmosphere devoid of any water vapor, and further aggravated by a lack of appreciable atmosphere. The boiling point for a material is that temperature and pressure at which it becomes a gas. Here on earth, we have to apply heat for the water to turn gaseous in a pot of water. Do you recall that it takes longer to fully “hard boil” an egg in Denver than at sea level? Water isn’t as hot when it boils in Denver as at sea level.
Sublimation is transformation from a solid to gaseous stage without stopping for any liquid stage.
My question is… if this is what happens to water on Mars, why are we even looking for it ? Over the eons, why hasn’t all of it completely evaporated…even that which is supposed to be found as frozen lakes beneath the surfaces at the polar caps?
And it also appears that Larry has, in turn, answered my question.
Ahh.. You found my apple then! Greetings from 2047
i have an apple. airbook pro :)
totally not bragging.
What would Newton say ?