How Did Mars Turn into a Barren Planet?

Among the planets in our Solar System, the most interesting and most Earth-like planet Anthem. While it’s a barren planet now ravaged by dust storms, we know this wasn’t always the case.

Formed about 4.6 billion years ago, Mars is thought to have had lakes and rivers in the past. What gives us this information is the dried lakes and river beds on the surface of the planet, the sedimentary rocks and the sub-ice water bodies that NASA discovered in the past years. All this information, Mars’ past a fertile and livable planet indicates that it may have happened.

There is a very important and unanswered question: why did all the water resources on Mars disappear?

This dramatic change on Mars occurred 3.5 billion years ago being calculated. In other words, the Red Planet had turned into an arid and barren planet one billion years after its formation. However, a clear answer could not be given to the most important question brought about by the change; Why did Mars suddenly become uninhabitable from a habitable planet?

Scientists have been searching for an answer to this question for many years. Scientists, who have obtained some results by examining the data obtained from Mars missions, have so far Although they do not give a clear answer Some options are presented.

According to one of these options, the climate that formed the waters on the surface of Mars was initially warm and rainy. This warm climate promoted the necessary precipitation cycle, and thus the waters on the planet. But then, the climate on the planet cooled and the rains ceased. as it stands water sources dried up and Mars became an increasingly barren planet.

The key point of this option is ‘why did the planet get cold?’ to the question so far carbon dioxide was displayed. Due to the low amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the planet, the heat of the planet could not be trapped in the atmosphere with the greenhouse gas effect, thus the planet cooled and dried up.

A new study takes carbon dioxide out of the equation

A new study conducted by a group of scientists and published recently revealed that carbon dioxide is not the ‘motive force’ in question. The team, which created many simulations for the Martian climate and observed the effects by changing the amount of carbon dioxide, saw that the change in the amount of carbon dioxide did not change the result.

In other words, one of the most common ideas about what happened to the water on Mars was weakened. The research team currently determines what the variable in question is, They didn’t know exactly what was drying Mars. they express. But they hope some data from NASA’s ongoing missions to Mars will answer these questions.

This is not the only option; There are also studies that say that the waters of Mars have not disappeared, but are still hidden on the planet.

‘As humanity’transforming from a habitable planet to an uninhabitable‘ The only planet we know is Mars. This allows many different scientists to seek answers to questions about Mars. So many scenarios emerge.

Another remarkable answer to what happens to the water on Mars is From a research team from Caltech It came last year. In this research, it was pointed out that it would not be possible for all the water on Mars to ‘escape’ from the atmosphere and gradually dry out, because there are even ‘ocean’-like formations on the planet with depths ranging from 100 to 1500 meters. Their alternative answer is that the water on Mars is actually it’s kind of still on the planet towards.

So how is this possible?

The said research Doesn’t deny that water on Mars is also decreasing through the atmosphere however, it concentrates on new data, thinking that it will not be enough on its own. Accordingly, the water on the surface of Mars clings to the minerals on the planet and dries up.

The water interacting with the rocks and the chemical weathering that occurs form water-containing clays and other minerals. A similar process is happening on Earth. But since Earth is tectonically active, recycles water and other molecules into the atmosphere through volcanic activities. With this, Although there are some earthquakes and volcanic movements, Mars is not tectonically active like Earth. and therefore, this once-occurring situation leads to permanent dryness as the water does not return to the surface.

None of these studies have yet been able to provide definitive answers.

Ongoing missions to Mars and planned for the future seek answers to this question and many more that have yet to be definitively answered. Especially tasks that will take place in the coming years.It is thought that this could explain what happened to this planet, which is very similar to Earth.

Why is it so important to understand what happened to Mars?

As you know, one of the biggest questions humanity seeks answers to is whether we are alone in the universe. Earth is the only planet we know of that has conditions lavish enough to host life on it. Scientists have also determined how likely a planet is to be habitable and What are the scenarios in the universe that prevent this? they consider Mars, the closest example, to understand better.

Also, as you know The world is a planet that loses its water resources day by day and is heading towards an arid future.. Therefore, a better understanding of what Mars has experienced in the past can help us better understand the drought and ‘death’ scenarios in the Earth’s future. Like this ‘Will our planet be like this in the future?We can more easily answer questions such as ‘…

While scientists are looking for reasons, crazy projects that will make Mars habitable again are not produced.

The first name that comes to mind when we say Mars Elon Musk, is not only concerned with building rockets that will take us to the Red Planet. Musk also thinks that Mars can be made a habitable planet again, and he offers solutions by making interesting statements from time to time.

The first of these, and the one that has an earthquake effect all over the world, is the one he proposed a few years ago. ‘Let’s drop a nuclear bomb on Mars’ It was his suggestion. Musk called this ‘crazy suggestion’For now, we know one slow and one fast method to make a planet livable. In the slow method, we expect these gases to thicken the atmosphere of Mars and warm the planet with the greenhouse effect by gradually and gradually increasing the rate of greenhouse gases on the planet. In the second and fastest method, we send several nuclear bombs to the poles of the planet, which you can carry with our “SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy” rocket, I’m sure. explained as.

However, after a few years of this proposal, Musk gave up on the idea and offered another proposal to heat the Martian surface and create a greenhouse gas effect: With the help of solar reflectors To collect the sun’s rays on a single point on the planet and to create the required atmosphere by dissolving the carbon dioxide gas bound in the soil.

Of course, any of these statements of Musk We don’t even know exactly if it will work. However, we know that crazy ideas lead to great developments even if they do not work directly. Maybe such ‘crazy’ ideas will make Mars a habitable planet again in the future, who knows.