fem.babysloth
Registered
- Feb 4, 2019
- 9
- 1
Okay I saw this thread and got super excited. I am in an astronomy class at my college right now and last week we were focusing on Mars and the possibility of life on it. Basically Mar's geological makeup is evidence that during its first 2 billion years of life (our solar system is roughly 4 billion years old) it was basically like a smaller version of earth. Almost the entire northern hemisphere of the planet was like 1 big ocean, we know this because there are all kinds of ice left behind and different geological figures like dried up rivers and erosion.. etc.
Backing up, one of the key features in having a planet that sustains life is that the planet has to have a magnetic field that leads to an atmosphere being formed, which in turn leads to an ozone layer (made out of carbon dioxide) being formed. This ozone layer regulated the temperature of the planet and allows for water to remain in a liquid state and form tiny little organisms that would be considered life.
Anyways, scientists have found evidence that these key components to create life did exist on mars around 2 billion years ago but due to its size it was not able to properly retain its magnetic field, which led to no atmosphere, no ozone, and water turning to solids and gases, and no life.
BUT! All four inner planets in our solar system are called terrestrial planets. And one common feature of these terrestrial planets is that they have an inner core that is very very hot, and an outer core and crust that traps all this heat inside the inner core. In earth's situation, our crusts are such good insulators that it would take billions of years for this inner core to cool down. This has lead scientists to believe that mar's inner core may still be very very hot, and some wonder that there may be a possibility that somewhere between the outer core and the crust of mars, the temperature might be just right to still have liquid water. We know that mars still has liquid water sometimes of the year when it is closest to the sun, but if there is liquid water somewhere in mar's crust then that means there is a possibility that the beginnings of life might be down there somewhere. Nothing big and scary, but just tiny little organisms.
Anyways that's what I spent like 15 hours of my life learning last week. Hope you all enjoy!
Backing up, one of the key features in having a planet that sustains life is that the planet has to have a magnetic field that leads to an atmosphere being formed, which in turn leads to an ozone layer (made out of carbon dioxide) being formed. This ozone layer regulated the temperature of the planet and allows for water to remain in a liquid state and form tiny little organisms that would be considered life.
Anyways, scientists have found evidence that these key components to create life did exist on mars around 2 billion years ago but due to its size it was not able to properly retain its magnetic field, which led to no atmosphere, no ozone, and water turning to solids and gases, and no life.
BUT! All four inner planets in our solar system are called terrestrial planets. And one common feature of these terrestrial planets is that they have an inner core that is very very hot, and an outer core and crust that traps all this heat inside the inner core. In earth's situation, our crusts are such good insulators that it would take billions of years for this inner core to cool down. This has lead scientists to believe that mar's inner core may still be very very hot, and some wonder that there may be a possibility that somewhere between the outer core and the crust of mars, the temperature might be just right to still have liquid water. We know that mars still has liquid water sometimes of the year when it is closest to the sun, but if there is liquid water somewhere in mar's crust then that means there is a possibility that the beginnings of life might be down there somewhere. Nothing big and scary, but just tiny little organisms.
Anyways that's what I spent like 15 hours of my life learning last week. Hope you all enjoy!
