Mars, More Then Meets the Eye.

September 11, 2010

Mars has been seen for years as a dead planet known best by it's desolate red sand and or course little green men. Well as it turns out the possibility of martians is a little bit better then first expected.

The mission has shown that there was an abundance of water on Mars as well as an atmosphere that may have been able to support life. The evidence comes in the form of intricate measurements the lander took of the planets atmosphere – specifically, the relative abundance of different forms of carbon and oxygen in atmospheric CO2.

Mars Phoenix's hints of dynamic interplays involving water, surface rocks, and the atmosphere over time contrast sharply with the once-prevailing view that the red planet was a dead planet. Mars started out with a large, thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere after its birth some 4.6 billion years ago. The planet's weak gravity and lack of a magnetic field allowed much of that initial atmosphere to escape into space, however, leaving only a dwindling remnant behind.

The other possibility, Niles says, is that while Mars lost a fair portion of that initial atmosphere to space, carbon also was captured to form carbon-bearing minerals on the planet's surface – a process that requires the presence of liquid water. Over time, CO2 emitted through periodic volcanism offset to some degree the CO2 lost through these other processes.

Recent observations from spacecraft orbiting Mars have uncovered evidence of 100-million-year-old lava flows on the surface – just yesterday in a 4.6 billion-year history. In addition, the orbiters have detected evidence of fresh flows – appearing during the course of the orbiters' missions – that carve gullies down the sides of Martian craters. One explanation for the flows holds that water ice just below the surface melted suddenly at a weak spot in the crater walls, burst out, and flowed down the slope before it quickly evaporated.

With these new findings if the rovers evidence holds then the world will have to take a much harder look at Mars and what may have happened there millions of years ago. Perhaps a manned mission to Mars migh uncover something amazing...