Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
on Mars
By Peter J. Sherman
Astrobiology, Harvard Summer School
August 2011
Mars is the sole planet whose surface can be observed from Earth using a
telescope. Due to the clear view of the Martian surface from Earth, humans have
long been intrigued by the possibility of life in outer space. While the human
interest in extraterrestrial life has been existent for many centuries, viewing the
universe from Mars perspective had not been feasible until a few decades ago.
On July 14, 1965, NASA sent Mariner 4 to Mars. Mariner 4 was the first probe
learned about what we were dealing with on Mars; the images showed a
seemingly lifeless planet with craters that greatly ranged in size. Important to
note from the results was the low atmospheric pressure (4.1 to 7.0 mb) and
temperatures (-100 C) and the lack of a magnetic field on the surface of Mars
just over 45 years ago, we have discovered much more about Mars through
more expeditions.
about the potentiality of life outside of Earth. These space missions have helped
Probes have found signs of erosion and liquid water on the surface of Mars.
With well-designed probes like these, we should be able to find even more
Aside from NASAs most recent discovery of craters forming salty, liquid
water just a few days ago, NASA was also recently baffled by the fact that parts
of Planum Australe, the Martian south pole, was evaporating into the
atmosphere. Fenton 2007 compared two images taken by the Mars Global
Planum Australe is primarily composed of water ice and dry ice, with some parts
being permafrost and others being seasonal. Based on the two images 23 years
apart, NASA noted that not only the seasonal ice caps disappeared, but also
parts of the permafrost. The disappearance of parts of the permafrost ice caps
can best be attributed to the rapidly growing average surface temperature which,
similar to that of ours on Earth due to global warming. If Mars atmosphere were
being blasted away by solar winds (due to its lack of a magnetic field), large
asteroids, and Mars own internal workings, Mars would deal with a significantly
rays from the sun on Mars. This would lead to a much colder Mars. The
possible for the average temperature to rise (at a fast rate) when all of its
theories, based off of the many characteristics of Mars and its history. These
theories run the gamut from solar irradiance on Mars to large global dust storms
which change the composition of Mars atmosphere. This research paper will go
over possible theories for the increased average surface temperature and
determine the validity of each one. It will start by investigating dust storms and
strong winds due to Mars low thermal inertia and the Martian wobble (caused by
its tilt and rotation) as possible catalysts for the large climate change that
scientists have witnessed over the past 40 years. Then, it will look at how these
small changes in the Martian environment could have led to a lower albedo and
how that could have affected the Martian climate change. This researcher will
then determine the validity of these theories or whether Mars is heating up simply
because of solar irradiance, solar cycle variations which affect the average
temperature of all planets in the suns orbit. Solar cycles could be used to
completely man-made. This paper will then proceed to determine the final
location of the evaporated Martian water from the polar ice caps, as we know
amount of water vapor, where is all the water vapor going if the polar ice caps
are evaporating? Finally, this paper will conclude with a discussion as to which
theory has the most validity to its claim. A variety of factors could have
potentially influenced the current climate change on Mars, but do some hold
Mars has a low thermal inertia; when the sun shines on the surface, it
heats up quickly, and when the suns rays do not hit the surface, Mars cools
down almost immediately. The low thermal inertia of Mars can be seen though
its daily temperature swings, which can have a range as large as 100 K per day
rapid climate change. When the Mariner 9 probe first landed on Mars in 1971,
NASA noticed that all the images taken were difficult to see. The images were
unclear due to a large dust storm that encompassed a large portion of the planet.
We later found out that these dust storms are a frequent occurrence on Mars
because winds only need to be around 40-50 miles per hour to cause such
Mars surface into the air. This also occurs on Earth, but on Mars, the dust
and because of precipitation. On Earth, we are able to get rid of dust in our
winds) is left in the atmosphere. The combination of heat trapped by the large
surface winds and no loss of heat from the atmosphere (that is neither growing
nor shrinking because the Mars surface dust counters the affects of the Martian
extremely plausible theory because there are many images of large windstorms
on Mars, like in Figure 1, which indicate large quantities of dust being thrown into
the air all over the Martian surface. What other scientific theories have been
changes. Milutin
Milankovitch, a renowned
Serbian
tilt decreases, the seasons have much milder temperatures because the sunlight
hits the entire surface of Earth with the same amount of power. This is the
opposite from when the axial tilt is large because the seasons will be extremely
polarized due to sunlight shining brightly on some areas of Earth and little on
Earths axial tilt versus Earths average surface temperature, which had a period
Milankovitch Cycles, which are similar to a sinusoidal function. While Earth and
Mars are not entirely characteristically similar, similar cycles can be attributed to
Mars, as well. Mars axial tilt is currently increasing, which is making the
summers hotter and the winters colder. Martian seasons are about twice as long
as Earths seasons. With a hotter summer, the seasonal martian polar ice caps
on Mars evaporate into the atmosphere at a faster rate than usual. Even some
of the permafrost on Mars evaporates due to the strong effects of the axial tilt.
This could be a plausible explanation for the Martian climate change because the
summers would be hotter than usual, and the polar ice caps would evaporate into
the atmosphere.
A few other scientists believe that a change in solar irradiation was the
catalyst for climate change on both Earth and Mars. Solar irradiance is the
received is not the only thing changing; ultraviolet irradiance and solar winds are
also greatly impacted. While there is a percent variation of just .2% for total
irradiance, things such as UV irradiance have greatly changed over the past few
Minimum (a period from 1645-1715 where sunspots were seldom seen by solar
observers), and the suns magnetic flux has increased by a factor of 2.3 since
the suns magnetic flux over the past few centuries would be an indication of
climate change, not just on Earth, but in our entire solar system. This means that
all planets in our solar system would have a parallel global warming; everyone is
increasing temperature at the same rate. A parallel global warming would concur
with the evidence that Mars and Earth have increased average surface
temperatures of about the same rate over the past 40 years. While this theory is
the scientific community. Aside from the many other reasons why this theory is a
tad bit preposterous, this theory also claims that humans have no impact
whatsoever on our current climate change on Earth. Not only does this theory
make little physical sense, solar irradiance could also be attributed to the elliptical
rotations of the planets around the sun. Although this theory receives censure
from the large majority of the scientific community, the solar irradiance theory
agrees with both the wind- Figure 3: This graph
dust storm and axial tilt
shows the amount of
theories in that they show solar flux received per that Mars is rapidly heating
year. The function is
sinusoidal
up, and causing its polar ice caps to evaporate into
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/05/14
/the-solar-radio-microwave-flux/
the atmosphere. However Mars has an incredibly thin
the Martian atmosphere. Where is the final destination of the evaporated water if
2GM
We have learned in class that v esc = . Although the radius of Mars
r
is about 50% of Earths radius, the mass of Mars is about 11% of Earths mass.
Using the equation, this means that the escape velocity is going to be
means that a significantly larger amount particles are able to escape from the
3KT
also learned the equation vThermal = . Using 218 K as the average
m
escape velocity equation. We find that vesc = 5027 m/s. Since the escape
velocity only needs to be six times greater than the thermal velocity, and
Martian atmosphere and into space. Will the disappearing ice have an impact on
Since ice is a brighter surface than liquid water, it has a higher albedo.
the surface. This in turn led to a rapid heating on the surface of Mars, and can
explain the .5 C increased temperature over the last 40 years. Now that we
know the end result of this whole process, which heating process makes the
I believe that each of the three theories played a role, whether large or
small, in the process of evaporating ice on Mars. Certain concepts from each of
these theories could be an explanation for what has been a big question mark for
scientists over the past few years of noticing this change. Wind-dust storms, the
axial tilt, and solar irradiance could have all greatly been catalysts for the climate
change on Mars over the past few decades, which led to the lower albedo on
Mars. Climate change is becoming an important topic to discuss, not just for
1. "Climate change hits Mars." The Sunday TImes. N.p., 29 Apr. 2007. Web.
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<http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7136/abs/nature05718.html>
5. "Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Causing for Global Warming,
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-
warming_2.html>.
Change-on-Mars.html>.
7. Wikipedia contributors. "Mars." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
8. Barry, Patrick. "A Tale of Planetary Woe." NASA. N.p., 6 Nov. 2009. Web.
nasa/2009/06nov_maven/>.
<http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/CO2_Science_rel/malin_etal.ht
ml>.
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