Post on 06-Jan-2016
description
Mars:
Earth’s little brother
What are the similarities and differences you notice?
Mars’s axis is tilted at 25 deg. What are seasons on Mars like?
Mars’s axis tilt changes dramatically. What happens when the tilt is less/more?
Artist’s depiction of an ‘icy Mars’
Do the Earth and Mars have similar interiors?
Why?
How do we even know what’s inside a planet?
Atmospheres: Are they similar?Why?
Nitrogen: 78%
Oxygen: 21 %
Argon: 0.9%
Water: > 1%
Carbon Doxide: 0.002%
Carbon Doxide: 95.%
Nitrogen: 3%
Argon: 2%
Oxygen: 0.1%
Water: > 0.03%
Constituents:
Is there water on Mars? Why or why not?
Is there water on Mars? Why or why not?
Mars’s south pole
Is there water on Mars? Why or why not?
Phase Diagram of Water
Mars
Earth
Par
tial P
ress
ure
of W
ater
Temperature
Mars or Earth?
Columbia Hills, Mars
Columbia Hills, Mars
Atacama Desert, Chile
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Kilauea Volcanoe, Hawaii Olympus Mons, Mars
Mars or Earth?
Dubai, UAE Endurance Crater, Mars
Mars or Earth?
What is the evidence for past water on Mars?
Mars or Earth?
Djado Plateau, Niger Valles Marineris, Mars
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Holden Crater NE, Mars
Lena Delta, Argentina
Mars or Earth?
Yemen
Mars
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
NigerMars
Mars or Earth?
Seven minutes of terror
Curiosity descenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZX5GRPnd4U
Google Mars
Mars: Take-away messages
•Although smaller than Earth, Mars and Earth are similar in many ways.
•Mars and Earth have similar interiors, although Mars has no liquid outer core, and so no magnetic field.
•Mars geology is/was formed by cratering, volcanism, tectonics and erosion by wind AND WATER!
•(Plate tectonics doesn’t seem to have been important)
•Mars’s atmosphere is very different from Earth’s - lower mass, and full of CO2.
•Mars’s small atmosphere and low temperature makes liquid water unstable at its surface (at least right now).
Percival Lowell’s MarsLowell’s Map of Mar published in 1895
Viking’s Mars 1976
Viking’s Mars 1976