Replies

Pardon me, but I do not know what the current paradigm is
for the presence of water on Mars and other questions...

1) where did it come from?
2) How long would it take to sublimate into the atmosphere?
3) Was Mars warmer long ago?
4) If Mars has 95% CO2, what would its temp be without
that greenhouse gas?
5) Where did the C02 come from?
6) Is there geothermal heat on Mars?
7) Why are all the planets so different, surely they must
have come from some homogenous planetoid material in the
past? Why didn’t the mass all settle into one or two Super planets
orbiting the Sun?
8) shouldn’t the planets rocks be similar, with the
major differences being the relative differences in heating,
and time at certain temperatures?
9) Could hexagonal shapes be due to other chemicals beside
water? What about hydrogen sulfide? or frozen C02? How about
heated magma, coming to the surface and crystallizing out?
10) Could DNA survive such a thin atmosphere with all the
X, cosmic rays, and solar ionizing radiation?
11) How much C02 escapes the atmosphere on Mars?
Are these questions answered in any astronomy textbooks?

Thanks

Get Ready - visit Space.com - they have a number of “Answer Blogs” that are the best I've seen on the Web - here goes on a couple of your questions - Mars may have some geothermal heat, but not enough to generate a magnetic field, so it is much less than earth, and possibly zero - stars and planets form in “molecular clouds” which are like nebula clouds except they have the full menu of elements, not just hydrogen and helium - molecular clouds are believed to be the end product of star explosions, also known as supernovas - as a new star forms at the center of a molecular cloud, its heat and gravity causes atoms and molecules to sort themselves out at various radii - planet formation is pure chaos - collisions, nearby stars, the kind of central solar star, can have enormous impact on what kind of planets form and where they orbit - on Earth, living organisms, bacteria really, the size of a human mitochondria, have been found miles below the surface, so for simple life space radiation may not be a problem - life as we understand it requires some level of a liquid medium, like water or methane, so that different kinds of molecules can dissolve, and move, and interact - the basic rationale for the Phoenix Mars probe is to see if ice exists just below the surface, and, once melted, if Martian water holds organic molecules - for some reason, Phoenix has no capability to actually test for life - seems crazy to me - it costs $400 million and took hundreds of people to get it to Mars - why they didn't add a few life detecting instruments is a complete mystery to me

Here's a quickie try: 1) where did it come from?

Water came from the same place as on earth...formed while the planet was forming and cooling.

2) How long would it take to sublimate into the atmosphere?

Not sure. It's a long gradual process. Unfortunately, Mars' smaller mass seemed to be unable to entrap most of it.

3) Was Mars warmer long ago?

Absolutely. All the planets were.

4) If Mars has 95% CO2, what would its temp be without that greenhouse gas?

CO2 isn't a greenhouse gas according to much recent thinking. Besides, the atmosphere of Mars is very thin. Anyway presumed greenhouse effect would then be very small.

5) Where did the C02 come from?

Same place the water did.

6) Is there geothermal heat on Mars?

Possibly but not as much as Earth

7) Why are all the planets so different, surely they must have come from some homogenous planetoid material in the past? Why didn’t the mass all settle into one or two Super planets orbiting the Sun?

Great question that requires a long answer. All the planets formed from the same accretion disk but at different distances from the Sun. That meant different amounts of forces acting on them so different types of planets. http://stardate.org/resources/ssguide/planet_form.html
There are some good documentaries on Science channel.

8) shouldn’t the planets rocks be similar, with the major differences being the relative differences in heating, and time at certain temperatures?

In a way, they are. The rovers found very similar rock formations and types.

9) Could hexagonal shapes be due to other chemicals beside water? What about hydrogen sulfide? or frozen C02? How about heated magma, coming to the surface and crystallizing out?

Maybe. But water obviously does it. When you hear hoof-beats, think horses not zebras.

10) Could DNA survive such a thin atmosphere with all the X, cosmic rays, and solar ionizing radiation?

Possibly. After all, we've found dinosaur dna fragments.

11) How much C02 escapes the atmosphere on Mars?

Don't don't know but Mars is 1/3 the mass of Earth so it is easier for light gasses to escape.

Are these questions answered in any astronomy textbooks?

Probably. :-)