If there is life that we hope to find we have to look close to us. I looked at Jupiter last week because it is known as Earth’s sister planet and has common dimensions to Earth. There were factors that make it impossible to have life on it presently and some factors that make me question if it could have had life at all. I have decided to look at Mars because it is common knowledge that there is liquid ice on Mars. Mars is smaller than Earth and it is also further from the sun then Earth but it does have some similarities that are interesting to look at. For Earth to rotate once on its axis it takes 24 hours and Mars takes 24hours and 29 minutes. All the other terrestrial planets have long rotation periods. One of the reasons that our rotation period is so fast is because of the impact with the body that made our moon, this sped up the rotation. So why is Mars rotation period so close to ours? Another commonality that both Mars and the Earth have is the tilt of its axis. Earth has a tilt of 23.5o and Mars has a tilt of 25.12o. Mars does have a very thin atmosphere but would not be able to support life at this time. Mars does have two moons but they are not spherical because they do not have enough self-gravity and thus they do not affect Mars the way that Earth is affected by its relatively large moons.
 |
| Image obtained from http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect19/Sect19_10.html |
I read an interesting article in national geographic and instead of looking for life to form on Mars there may be a way to form Mars into a habitable planet. Mars is a lot colder than Earth but then again Earth should be cooler then it is presently. We are warm here because of our greenhouse gases. If that could be replicated on Mars with the water the CO2 they seem to think is in the dirt and frozen in polar ice caps it could insulate Mars. This would warm the planet and then they seem to think mars will then make itself suitable for life. This would be an idea that would be nice to believe in but there are still important factors that are missing. What about the large moon on Earth, the magnetic field, and the tectonic plates? One argument to burst their bubble is that without a strong global magnetic field they would be affected by the solar winds, and solar flares. This may not be as intense as at Earth because they are further away but they still will be affected. Without this magnetic field the atmosphere could just blow away. So when looking at these possibilities one has to look at other factors.
 |
| Image Obtained from Stellarium |
Some Data was obtained from :
this makes me wonder why mars doesn't have a magnetic field! And most importantly, if it is possible for us to create an artificial magnetic field, as planets that can sustain life are difficult to come by within Earth's vicinity. A backup plan when Earth starts to lose its ability to sustain life would be very helpful in our species' survival! Because so many people's blogs have comments on the prospect of life on Mars, I've decided to put in something similar of my own! I will also try incorporate the mysterious disappearance of Mar's magnetic field into my blog as well =) thanks for the fascinating topic of "terraforming" Mars!
ReplyDelete