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Mars Atmosphere Loss


Waspie_Dwarf

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NASA | Mars Atmosphere Loss: Neutral Processes

When you take a look at Mars, you probably wouldn't think that it looks like a nice place to live. It's dry, it's dusty, and there's practically no atmosphere. But some scientists think that Mars may have once looked like a much nicer place to live, with a thicker atmosphere, cloudy skies, and possibly even liquid water flowing over the surface. So how did Mars transform from a warm, wet world to a cold, barren desert? NASA's MAVEN spacecraft will give us a clearer idea of how Mars lost its atmosphere (and thus its water), and scientists think that several processes have had an impact.

Scientists think that the collision of neutral hydrogen molecules may have helped to drive the Martian atmosphere into space over billions of years.

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: NASA - Multimedia

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Tks for the info Good Post

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NASA | Mars Atmosphere Loss: Plasma Processes

Mars's thick early atmosphere was likely lost to space, and the Sun is a potential culprit. When high-energy solar photons strike the upper Martian atmosphere they can ionize gas molecules, causing the atmosphere to erode over time.

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: NASA - Multimedia

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NASA | Mars Atmosphere Loss: Sputtering

How did Mars, a once wet planet, lose its early atmosphere? One possibility is through a process called "sputtering," in which atoms are knocked away from the atmosphere due to impacts with energetic particles.

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: NASA - Multimedia

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Waspie...

I am a big fan of sci-fiction and a reoccuring theme in some of the more 'science' based stories is creating a thicker atmospher on Mars by slamming a huge ice comet (asteroid or some such) into the planet, thereby

thickening the atmosphere and re-introducing large amounts of water and quite possibly warming the planet...

I know it's fiction, but in your opinion could this work?... I also realise if it did work it would be temporary - but temporary could be a few thousand years...

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I know it's fiction, but in your opinion could this work?...

I'm no expert on terraforming, but one large comet does not see sufficient to me. It certainly would not add enough water, nor would it raise the temperature sufficiently to melt the permafrost and release the water that some believe is just below the surface.

I also do not see how it would release enough gas to produce an atmosphere.

There are hypothetical models for terraforming Mars, but I would suggest that a single impact is not one of them.

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