Unusual greenhouse gases may have raised ancient Martian temperature

[knocker]

Much like the Grand Canyon, Nanedi Valles snakes across the Martian surface suggesting that liquid water once crossed the landscape, according to a team of researchers who believe that molecular hydrogen made it warm enough for water to flow.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-unusual-greenhouse-gases-ancient-martian.html#jCp

Edited November 24, 2013 by knocker

[frogesque]

It's not a simple case of warming, you need atmospheric pressure as well in order for a liquid water phase to be stable on the surface.

[knocker]

Isn't that another of the mysteries. How Mars lost it's atmosphere.

 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2013/11/18/how-did-mars-lose-its-water-new-orbiter-aims-to-find-out

[mike Meehan]

I go with the theory that since Mars is so much smaller than the Earth, about half its mass, its core cooled much quicker than ours changing it from a liquid into a solid - once the whole planet became solid, it meant that different sub sections could not revolve at a different rate to each other which is an essential part of maintaining a magnetic field which is developed through this interaction.

 

Some also say that it may have been involved in a collision  with an asteroid some 4 million years ago which had catastrophic effects and that prior to this it was quite earth like.

 

As the magnetic field dies away the planet was at the mercy of the solar winds which over time stripped a lot of the atmosphere away and a good part of that which wasn't stripped away combined with the rocks, for example the oxygen combined with the iron in the rocks, oxidising it, though water still exists there in the form of ice and that is why it became the 'Red Planet'.

[summer blizzard]

I go with the theory that since Mars is so much smaller than the Earth, about half its mass, its core cooled much quicker than ours changing it from a liquid into a solid - once the whole planet became solid, it meant that different sub sections could not revolve at a different rate to each other which is an essential part of maintaining a magnetic field which is developed through this interaction.

 

Some also say that it may have been involved in a collision  with an asteroid some 4 million years ago which had catastrophic effects and that prior to this it was quite earth like.

 

As the magnetic field dies away the planet was at the mercy of the solar winds which over time stripped a lot of the atmosphere away and a good part of that which wasn't stripped away combined with the rocks, for example the oxygen combined with the iron in the rocks, oxidising it, though water still exists there in the form of ice and that is why it became the 'Red Planet'.

 

I go with the theory that since Mars is so much smaller than the Earth, about half its mass, its core cooled much quicker than ours changing it from a liquid into a solid - once the whole planet became solid, it meant that different sub sections could not revolve at a different rate to each other which is an essential part of maintaining a magnetic field which is developed through this interaction.

 

Some also say that it may have been involved in a collision  with an asteroid some 4 million years ago which had catastrophic effects and that prior to this it was quite earth like.

 

As the magnetic field dies away the planet was at the mercy of the solar winds which over time stripped a lot of the atmosphere away and a good part of that which wasn't stripped away combined with the rocks, for example the oxygen combined with the iron in the rocks, oxidising it, though water still exists there in the form of ice and that is why it became the 'Red Planet'.

 

Worth noting that Mars has no large moon like Earth and if one recalls one of the things which makes our core what it is was the early collision that formed the moon.

[mike Meehan]

Worth noting that Mars has no large moon like Earth and if one recalls one of the things which makes our core what it is was the early collision that formed the moon.

And no doubt the gravitational forces involved provide the energy to sustain our liquid core, as is believed to be the case with some of Jupiter's moons, whereas Venus which does not have tectononic activity and possibly a more solid core and no magnetic field to speak of does not have any moons.