posted on Dec, 5 2002 @ 09:04 PM
Well, two things...
1) There was at one time VAST amounts of water on mars, more than asteroids could bring I think.
2) There is still a considerable more water on mars then is commonly known. There are clouds, fog banks (sometimes entire valleys will fill with a
foggy mist). There is even free flowing water evident on mars, but we've not seen it in action at the moment.
But the article is also very interesting, and gives a feasable possibility. It is kind of sad to think of our closest neighbor as a dead world. But
it seems possible that Mars either had plenty of water, or didn't, or that it is a bit of both ideas.
But one question I think still remains, where did all the water go? And if there was such climatic impacts on the planet, where did all the internal
heat go?
Mars is not dead because of a sever shortage of water, but because geologic activity there has stopped, as far as we know, completely.
If the asteroid thing is what indeed happend, then why is it it wouldn't have helped further life on Mars?
They say because it was a shortlived wetness, but if so much water were on the surface at one time, surely its salinity would be enough to survive the
75+degree F temperatures at the surface?
I mean...ice in earths northern oceans melts every summer, and refreezes every winter, this is seen on mars as well. A big wonder is, why doesn't
water survive in the equatorial regions? Where up to 5 feet above the surface it reaches temperatures of about 80 degrees?
This is indicative of there being a sever lack of surface water, which means all that water whether natural to mars or by asteroids, has to be
somewhere in the vastly thick crust.
One more thought....I bet you the huge amount of water on earth came from at first, Asteroids. Looking at this article, it makes more sense that
asteroids would have brought our initial supply of water, and volcanoes would not be supplying water to earth until a much later time then previously
thought.
Sincerely,
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