Council Chronicle

Monday, April 19, 2021
Log in
  • National News
  • Business & Economy
  • Technology
  • Science
  • Health
  • About CC
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
    • Terms of Use

Pages

  • About Council Chronicle
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Former Wife of Prolific Arizona Serial Killer Speaks Up First Time after Scottsdale Suicide June 29, 2018
  • Indiana Couple Arrested After Authorities Discovered Cruel Punishment Device in Home June 28, 2018
  • Schizophrenic Oregon Man Who Was Seen Carrying His Mother’s Head Committed to Psychiatric Facility June 27, 2018
  • Texas Lawmen Looking for Four Suspect Who Tortured Child During Home Invasion June 27, 2018
  • Retirement Home Resident Reported Fake Fire to Draw In Firefighters and Shoot Them June 26, 2018
  • Arkansas Man Kills Wife, Sticks Body In Chest Freezer Before Committing Suicide June 26, 2018
  • West Virginia Man Arrested After He Tried to Baptize Family by Drowning Them in the Bathtub June 25, 2018

How Mars Has Lost its Atmosphere

November 25, 2015 By Jesse Skelton Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow
"curiosity rover"

Curiosity rover has done measurements of the Martian atmosphere

Scientists have found a plausible explanation for how Mars has lost its atmosphere, after discoveries showing that the Red Planet might have had an atmosphere even thicker than Earth’s.

Researchers now believe that Mars has once been a warm and watery planet, with a thick atmosphere. However until now there was no explanation for how did that change, transforming the planet into the cold, dry place that it is today.

A possible explanation has been formulated by a team of scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and California Institute of Technology.

They think that they discovered a photochemical process that could have made the dense atmosphere Mars once had to evolve to the one it has now by removing the excess of carbon dioxide.

They formulated two different scenarios. One is that the carbon dioxide had been incorporated into rocks as what is called carbonates. The other possible scenario is that the carbon dioxide has been lost in space.

However, a previous study has shown that the upper layer of Martian surface doesn’t contain such a high quantity of carbon as it would require for the theory to be validated.

To verify the theory of the carbon dioxide being lost in space, scientists start measuring carbon-12 and carbon-13. These are two carbon isotopes with the same number of protons but a different mass.

Chemical processes are generally able of changing the amounts of the two isotopes. Researchers start measuring their ratio at different times in the far history of Mars’ existence, using meteorites from its surface that contain gases from the planet’s mantle. Comparing the findings from the present and the past, scientists have been able to conclude that the ratio of carbon-13 in the Red Planet’s atmosphere is unusually high.

The theory of the solar winds ripping off Mar’s atmosphere – called Sputtering – has been ruled off since the scientists believe that their effect wouldn’t have enough strength to create such an enormous deficit of carbon.

However, the last theory of Caltech and JPL might be the most concluding. They argue that a chemical process between the CO2 and the ultraviolet light could be involved. When hit by UV molecules of CO2 raise to the superior part of the atmosphere. There, its molecule absorbs the energy of the photon and divides into carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O). When another UV strikes the CO, it is finally divided into carbon (C) and oxygen (O). The carbon produced by this chemical process can have enough energy to escape the atmosphere.

The study also shows that carbon-13 isotopes escape harder than carbon-12, which can explain their higher presence. This is in accordance with the findings of NASA’s Curiosity rover in the Martian atmosphere.

Image source: pixabay.com

Email, RSS Follow

Filed Under: Science

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 18 other subscribers

Recent Articles

ethics in dictionary highlighted

NIH Will Examine Ethical Problems of One of Their Studies

March 27, 2018 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

biomutant character

Eleven-Minutes Long Biomutant Trailer Prepares You for Amazing Gameplay and Mechanics

August 26, 2017 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

intime alibaba

Intime May Be Acquired By Its Founder And Alibaba

January 11, 2017 By Jesse Skelton Leave a Comment

Newborn baby

A Woman Gave Birth to Baby After Fertilizing Frozen Ovary

December 16, 2016 By Lee Raulin Leave a Comment

Parkes radio telescope

Hunting Aliens with Parkes Radio Telescope

November 11, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

man suffering from election season stress

Stressed Out? Here Are 7 Ways to Get Rid of Election Season Stress

October 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Disney World wants to prevent fraud.

Disney World prevents fraud by scanning children’s fingers

September 8, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

artificial intelligence

How will the Artificial Intelligence will affect our life by 2030?

September 3, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

opera sync

Opera Sync resets passwords after it was hacked

August 30, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

viping

Why are teens viping – flavours or nicotine?

August 26, 2016 By Dustin Smith Leave a Comment

sex abuse

Doctors in sex abuse cases return to work. What happens with their victims?

August 25, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

affection

Affection or food – which is more important for a dog?

August 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Chipotle restaurant

Chipotle to Open its First Burger Joint

July 30, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A Rolls Out Protein-Packed Grill Breakfast Sandwich

July 20, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Related Articles

  • Two neutron stars colliding, forming a gravitational wave

    Are Colliding Wormholes the Real Producers of Gravitational Waves? (Study)

    Jun 15, 2018
  • Trepanation

    Ancient Peruvian Doctors Better at Trepanation Than Civil War Surgeons, New Study Finds

    Jun 13, 2018
  • Songbirds

    UK and Germany Biologists Closer to Understanding How Two-Way Communication Works in the Animal Kingdom

    Jun 6, 2018
  • nile crocodiles on white sand in a museum

    Crocodiles Listen to Bach as Researchers Study Their Brains in New Experiment (Study)

    May 9, 2018
  • view of coast from isle of skye

    Scientists Discover Rare, Giant Dinosaur Tracks in Scotland (Study)

    Apr 5, 2018
  • Intelligent Vehicles

    Stanford to Spearhead Intelligent Vehicles Revolution with Cars that can See Around the Corner

    Mar 7, 2018
  • Floating robot and ISS

    Floating Robot To Join the ISS Crew in June

    Mar 5, 2018
  • exploding star

    First Ever Photo of a Star Exploding Captured by an Amateur Photographer

    Feb 26, 2018
  • little skate at the bottom of the ocean

    Did Ancient Fish Start Walking Before Even Leaving the Ocean? (Study)

    Feb 12, 2018
  • Mayan pyramid in Guatemala

    Laser Technology Reveals More Maya Ruins in Guatemala

    Feb 4, 2018

Categories

  • Breaking News
  • Business & Economy
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • National News
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Technology
  • World News

Copyright © 2021 CouncilChronicle.com

About · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Contact