AoT Rocket City – The Atacama Mirror: A Mars-Like Story of Salt and Water

Join us at Back Forty Beer Company for a public talk for non-astronomers and astronomers alike, given by Dr. Rachel Slank!

“What if water on Mars doesn’t form puddles or streams, but appears briefly as salt liquids pulled from the air? In Chile’s Atacama Desert, we tracker how Mars-like salts respond to daily humidity changes, revealing short-lived wetting cycles in one of Earth’s driest places.

This talk explores what these fleeting brines mean for Mars’ chemistry, surface processes, and past habitability. The takeaway: even tiny, short-lived liquids can matter for a planet’s chemistry, and for the big question of whether Mars was ever habitable.”