This may have BIG implications about the planet’s history..
Colonizing Mars is actually being discussed and is this a good idea? The red planet has fascinated astronomers for centuries. It is in a sense the most similar to ours in the solar system, and now astronomers are certain it actually has an atmosphere in the past which would make it very similar to our planet. Here is a bit more on the statement from NASA:
We finally have an understanding of how Mars transformed from a once habitable, Earth-like planet into the dry world we see today. NASA researchers have just announced that Mars’ once rich atmosphere was stripped away by solar winds in the early days of the Solar System, causing the planet to dry out.
Solar winds blast out from the Sun at around a million miles per hour (about 1.6 million km/h), and fortunately Earth is protected from these by our magnetic field. But although Mars used to have a magnetic field, it lost it as its planet cooled down billions of years ago, and that allowed the ions in its atmosphere to effectively be blown away.
This informative video has some more thorough background on the topic.
Here is a bit more information on the space device that has taken the pics and collected the data. Without this detailed information NASAS would not have been able to model things out in such fashion:
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft is flying high above the Red Planet with a battery of sensors. While previous Mars orbiters have peered down at the planet’s surface, MAVEN is spending part of its time gazing at the stars, looking for subtle changes in their color as they dip through the limb of Mars and set below the horizon. Such stellar occultations reveal what the atmosphere is made of, and how its composition varies with altitude. MAVEN’s observations are providing the most detailed picture of the Mars upper atmosphere to date, helping scientists understand how Mars turned from a warm and wet planet in its youth, into the forbidding desert that we see today.
And lastly, here is a discussion by Elon Musk the SpaceX founder on colonizing Mars. Did you ever think you would hear something like this?
Elon Musk talk about the future of private space exploration, including his long-term goal for SpaceX to “develop the technology necessary to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars, ultimately with the goal of establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars.
thanks to iflscience.com for the great info
thanks to NASA for the pic
No s@#t! Tell me something new! !!!
So. We’re between the sun & Mars. See a problem with this theory?
You’re wrong
If we indeed want to terraform mars, we’ll have to find a way to artificially sustain the atmosphere since the natural mechanisms to do so no longer exist.
If you read the article you’d know that earth is protected from the solar wind by its magnetic field. Mars lost its magnetic field about 3 billion years ago allowing the solar wind to strip away the atmosphere.
I am not wrong. You see, the planets revolve around the sun. Earth is the third planet. Mars is the fourth. We count the planets from closest outward.
The fourth planet is farther out than the third, causing the third planet to be between the fourth & the sun.
I hope this clears up your confusion.
I know the earth has a magnetic field, but thanks for the update.
Old news, I remember talk of this in the 90’s.
it happened once it’ll happen again
my friends been telling me that for decades, how is this news
Makes sense to me.
Your wrong.
Ok. Do. You. One. A. Cooky
Mars…you mean just a desert here on earth…
We create heavy waste gasses, methane, nitrogen etc. once a shield layer of “greenhouse gasses” are in place we can begin producing lighter gasses, helium, oxygen etc. to blend a breathable atmosphere.
Yes yes yes yes a. So?
This guy thinks that earth is perpetually blocking for mars. Hahaha! As if mars doesn’t have a direct line of sight to the sun.
We here on earth should experience blockage from mercury and Venus according to that logic.
Wrong. Who said blockage? Where did you dream that stupid from?
If Mars got blasted by the sun it would be reasonable to say everything between the two would receive the same blast.
Including Earth, dumbass.
There is evidence to support a major collision damage from a planetary body in the ancient past. Mars also has little to no electromagnetic field and no observable tectonic activity. It’s the lack of a protective EM field that allowed the atmosphere to be peeled away by solar winds.
This also means Terra forming is never gonna happen.
No, Earth was protected by its magnetic field, as was Venus, Mars’ atmosphere was blasted away because it had no magnetic protection.