It's official: Mars' atmosphere was stripped away by solar winds

a reply to: Brainiac

because we now know that Mars probably at one time had life

We actually don't know. The only evidence that there could have been is cursory. We have found traces of water. We have found erosion consistent with water flow. There have been detection of organic compounds, such as methane, found in the soil and being released within fissures in the northern and southern latitudes.

However, thus far no life has been found. Not even traces of it. Water does not necessarily mean life, and it could have been that life never had the chance to form there in the first place.

We have got to get humans on that planet and do some fossil hunting

It would be far more beneficial to focus our efforts toward terraforming and colonization before we go digging in the dirt for fossils that may not even be there. Remember that there hasn't been any geological activity on Mars for millions of years. You need SOME geological activity for fossilization to take place.

Source

In another fossilization process, called replacement, the minerals in groundwater replace the minerals that make up the bodily remains after the water completely dissolves the original hard parts of the organism. Fossils also form from molds and casts.

a reply to: n00bUK

The interesting thing about the difference between Earth and mars, is that we have a large moon and Mars doesnt. Our moon exerts tidal forces on our planet which helps to keep our outer core liquified, and generates the magnetic field. Mars probably had a magnetic field shortly after forming, but lost it when its core cooled. So in no small way, our moon has made it possible for life to exist on Earth.

a reply to: jhn7537

Everyone would be long gone if our magnetic Shield suddenly dropped as solar radiation would fry us to a crisp.

a reply to: the owlbear>>>> I once thought that MAYBE our planet's magnetic field is being weakened by the use of reverse engineered alien technology and/or possibly by aliens themselves. Maybe travel they use relies on magnetic fields through intra dimensional space. Jumping from point A to point B using magnetic fields. They could have visited Mars in the distant past and depleted its magnetic field( although I doubt it greatly contributed to Mars lack of atmosphere) and now its happening here on Earth.

a reply to: PainGod

Everyone would be long gone if our magnetic Shield suddenly dropped as solar radiation would fry us to a crisp.

No. Our atmosphere provides very good protection from solar radiation.

The magnetosphere provides no protection from electromagnetic radiation (UV, X-rays, gamma rays, etc) and no protection from uncharged particles. So with no magnetosphere, there would be a slight increase in charged particle radiation but no one would be fried. Perhaps a slight increase in cancer rates.

I thought there where dust storms on Mars, don't you need air or something to blow the dust around?

a reply to: korath

Mars has an atmosphere. A very, very thin one. It used to be much thicker. Most of it was dragged into space by the solar wind.

a reply to: Phage

Which leaves the question, what was the original atmosphere before the solar wind stripped it away . If it was oxidising like Earth then it might be a highly likely supposition that life existed there.

a reply to: anonentity

I'd say highly possible rather than likely.

There's the time frame problem. Although Mars may well have cooled faster than Earth did, there was the heavy bombardment period which may have been problematic for the development of life. Anything but very primitive life anyway. It took a pretty long while for anything but that to appear on Earth and we did have the advantage of being warmer.

originally posted by: n00bUK
Our earth is changing dramatically from climate change. Does this prove that it's not due to humans or does it prove that Mars had a population that caused the same change that we're going through now?

Neither.....

All it proves is that Mars, being much smaller than Earth, cooled much quicker. As it's core cooled and solidified, it's magnetic field weakened...

Had you read any of the OP's links, you'd know that.

a reply to: Phage

A paper came out yesterday, Quantifying the Origins of Life on a Planetary Scale, in which the authors stated that the Late Heavy Bombardment period might have upped the chances of life originating on Earth and/or Mars. The close proximity of the two coupled with the bombardment would allow for chemical exchanges between the two, increasing the chances of life originating on either.

I believe the paper argues that the bombardment coupled with close proximity of the two planets is the reason why life is in the Sol system. I still lean toward life originating outside of the system though just due to the statistical likelihood.

If it's 'official, certified or bonafied, I'm a believer.......

www.youtube.com...

i assumed this was already understood.

a reply to: darknessdelmundo

Yeah, same here - I've been telling my kids this for years.

a reply to: stumason

You gotta love Pluto

a reply to: raedar

I would have thought this would have been fairly obvious already. Considering the weak strength of it's magnetosphere, especially compared to Earth.

After the magnetosphere failed, ions began to escape from the ionosphere. Giving no insulation to atmospheric gases or composition. Along with the planet having to protection from solar winds after the EMF collapsed.

So the key is the failure of the magnetosphere(the protection against the solar winds and what keeps the ionosphere stable or insulated)


Here is a great NASA article from 2001, basically saying the same thing they are saying today..


(Magnetic map of Martian surface)

Mars isn't so fortunate. Lacking a planet-wide magnetic field, most of the Red Planet is exposed to the full force of the incoming solar wind. "The Martian atmosphere extends hundreds of kilometers above the surface where it's ionized by solar ultraviolet radiation," says Dave Mitchell, a space scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. "The magnetized solar wind simply picks up these ions and sweeps them away."
"In 1989 the Soviet Phobos probe made direct measurements of the atmospheric erosion," he continued. When the spacecraft passed through the solar wind wake behind Mars, onboard instruments detected ions that had been stripped from Mars's atmosphere and were flowing downstream with the solar wind. "If we extrapolate those Phobos measurements 4 billion years backwards in time, solar wind erosion can account for most of the planet's lost atmosphere."

Full Article

a reply to: Havick007
That's the thing. A theory can be very strong, but it doesn't hurt to continue to accumulate evidence to support it. Also, in the process, you may learn something that you hadn't considered.

Earth's magnetic field serves to deflect most of the solar wind, whose charged particles would otherwise strip away the ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.a reply to: Phage