article_snippet.sent: Curiosity detected salts called perchlorates, which can absorb water from the atmosphere and turn it into briny liquid.
article_snippet.sent: Doctor Morten Bo Madsen, associate professor and head of the Mars Group at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said: 'Doctor Morten Bo Madsen, associate professor and head of the Mars Group at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have discovered the substance calcium perchlorate in the soil and, under the right conditions, the substance calcium perchlorate in the soil absorbs water vapour from the atmosphere. '
article_snippet.sent: Based on measurements of humidity and the temperature at a height of 1.6 metres and at the surface of the planet, we can estimate the amount of water that is absorbed. '
article_snippet.sent: In September of the same year, the first scoop of soil analysed by Curiosity revealed that fine materials on the surface of the planet contain two per cent water by weight.