Why hasn’t there been more water discovered on Mars?
>>Why hasnt there been more water discovered on Mars?
Because God didn’t need to steer chondritic meteorites there.
|
|
|
|
So, where did the water on Mars come from? |
|
· 03/07/2004 2:21:58 AM PST · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 95 replies · · The Toronto Star · · 3/7/04 · · Terence Dickinson · |
The Mars rover Opportunity's examination of Martian rocks last week provided the first convincing evidence that our neighbour world was once "awash" in water, as one NASA scientist described it. But where did the water come from? And why does Mars have no liquid water now, while Earth apparently has been covered with the stuff for 4 billion years? Scientists are just beginning to piece the story together, and it goes right back to the beginning. Mars, like Earth, was formed from dusty and rocky debris left over after the sun was born 4.57 billion years ago. Initially, there were... |
|
|
|
Mars had liquid water, seas and an atmosphere covering the planet billions of years ago.
The theory is that it once had a magnetic field generated by a spinning iron core just like Earth. However, because of its smaller size and other factors, the core went dead much sooner. The Earth’s eventually will too.
A ‘dead’ planet cannot shield itself from solar wind. The water and most of the atmosphere was slowly ‘blow dried’ by this radiation over billions of years. However, the ice caps remain since that water is permanently frozen and never saw enough energy from the sun to reach a gas state.