Mars was a habitable planet more recently than we knew, UA team says
43 replies, posted
[quote]
Toss out that image of a Martian surface formed by spewing geysers and then encased in ice for a billion years.
A new analysis of information gathered by the UA-led Phoenix Mars Lander team points to a planet with wet water within the last 100 million years, said William Boynton, of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab.
The analysis of the carbon and oxygen isotopes contained in the planets pervasive CO2 is the subject of a paper co-authored by Boynton and published Thursday in the journal Science.
“One of the key requirements of habitability is liquid water,” said Boynton. “This has to indicate that conditions that favored life existed more recently than we thought.”
“Recent” is a relative term for geologists.
“We know it’s in the order of 100 million years,” said Boynton. "That’s still younger than several billion years and we couldn’t rule out it happened the day before yesterday.”
For Boynton, who has been studying the chemistry and geology of Mars for more than three decades, the Phoenix mission uncovered evidence for an evolving view of Mars as a geologically active planet whose form is still being sculpted by interaction with water.
Don’t imagine a temperate climate on Mars, said Paul Niles, a NASA space scientist and co-author of the Science article.
“It’s unlikely we’re dealing with rainfall and rivers and lakes,” Niles said. “Maybe it’s all happening in the atmosphere, more like Antarctica.” [/quote]
[url=http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_fdf96298-bc47-11df-85b1-001cc4c002e0.html] Source [/url]
What if Mars is what earth will look like in 100 million years? And everyone on Venus will be like "That planet is inhabitable. Always was, always will be."
This is awesome. I doubt we will actually live there but still, it's possible.
Great! I'm already packing my bags.
I wish we could actually travel to these planets. I'd love some new awesome scenery.
Paul Niles talking about rivers, heh.
[QUOTE=Atchell;24720412]What if Mars is what earth will look like in 100 million years? And everyone on Venus will be like "That planet is inhabitable. Always was, always will be."[/QUOTE]
The time frame may not necessarily be the same, but the end result is. It probably preventable, but with our current technology, it seems impossible.
By that time we will either have killed each other or colonized other planets anyway.
[QUOTE=Atchell;24720412]What if Mars is what earth will look like in 100 million years? And everyone on Venus will be like "That planet is inhabitable. Always was, always will be."[/QUOTE]
There is absolutely nothing that indicates this will happen.
[QUOTE=The Spocker;24721432]There is absolutely nothing that indicates this will happen.[/QUOTE]
Except, you know, global warming
[QUOTE=soderholm13;24721574]:cawg:[/QUOTE]
Yeah, because it's so far out to think our planet is getting hotter.
[QUOTE=Atchell;24721633]Yeah, because it's so far out to think our planet is getting hotter.[/QUOTE]
The planet goes through climate change all the time. There have been ice ages, there were points when the planet was a tropical clusterfuck (Suitable weather for the dinosaurs,) and so on.
[QUOTE=Atchell;24721633]Yeah, because it's so far out to think our planet is getting hotter.[/QUOTE]
We have wayyy more to worry about then the planet getting a bit hotter. A lot more.
Kind of scary how much a planet can change within 100 million years.
[QUOTE=Atchell;24720412]What if Mars is what earth will look like in 100 million years? And everyone on Venus will be like "That planet is inhabitable. Always was, always will be."[/QUOTE]
300 million years and we'll be living on the sun :science:
[QUOTE=mastermaul;24721840]300 million years and we'll be living on the sun :science:[/QUOTE]
~8 billion years :science:
[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;24721946]~8 billion years :science:[/QUOTE]
I said on not in. :v:
If we can discover stuff like this just using a dinky little remote controlled toy, imagine what we could do with a lab and a few actual human scientists on the surface.
The title says it all
[B]Mars was a habitable planet more recently than we knew, UA(C)team says [/B]
I'll never go to mars as long as UAC is running the show. Can't trust Union Aerospace Corporation.
[QUOTE=MR-X;24722020]The title says it all
[B]Mars was a habitable planet more recently than we knew, UA(C)team says [/B]
I'll never go to mars as long as UAC is running the show. Can't trust Union Aerospace Corporation.[/QUOTE]
Uh... University of Arizona.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;24722949]Uh... University of Arizona.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, yeah. Nice cover... We can see right through it...
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;24722949]Uh... University of Arizona.[/QUOTE]
Union Aerospace Corporation was the company that headed all the stuff on Mars in the Doom games. Its a joke to the Doom games (and books if you've read them.)
Mars probably looked like earth at a time. With life all around.
Obligatory mars song:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ5sWfhkpE0[/media]
ITT: nobody knows what the fuck global warming is
Maybe Mars' Core stopped spinning, it lost its Electromagnetic field, and the sun vaporized it
Yeah I saw that stupid ass movie yesterday
Why do they even need to change the atmosphere to make it habitable, we humans can use mars as one giant mining facility rather than support entire towns and cities, we can simply have domes with all the required materials, all we need is the construction of a cheap method of delivering supplies to the outposts.
[QUOTE=Random94;24724149]Why do they even need to change the atmosphere to make it habitable, we humans can use mars as one giant mining facility rather than support entire towns and cities, we can simply have domes with all the required materials, all we need is the construction of a cheap method of delivering supplies to the outposts.[/QUOTE]
There are alot of reasons we want to change the atmosphere:
1. It will give us experience and technology to do it to other planets we come across.
2. We want to avoid over population on Earth.
3. Having two planets will help us DRASTICALLY as we plan future colonizations. Developing new Communication, shipping and Police methods will be essential.
Not to mention no single extinction level event could wipe out our species, although if earth is wiped out and you're on Mars, Good fuckin' luck
Well no shit, knew this ages ago.
It was apparently hit by several huge asteroids that disrupted its magnetic fields that protected it from the harsh sun. Eventually the entire atmosphere was stripped and life (presumably) disappeared from the planet. And terraforming the magnetic field is pretty hard, as of what I've heard.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.