By: Michael D. Lemonick
"The same heat trapping processes that are causing so much trouble on Earth once made Mars a very pleasant place". (Lemonick 1). There have been so many arguments about what the atmosphere is made out of. The general things include carbon dioxide and water vapor but what is it, beyond that? Recent findings have been told in the Nature Geoscience that, "massive quantities of hydrogen gas belched from Martian volcanoes". (Lemonick). There are so many differences, when comparing the sun from now and the sun 3.8 billion years ago. "Not only is the planet again as far from the Sun's warmth as Earth is, but 3.8 billion years ago, when Martian rivers flowed, the Sun was only about three fourths as bright as it is today." (Lemonick 1). When first starting this project many years ago, scientists understood that the carbon dioxide was not the answer. When observing water, scientists found that when ice evaporates and turns into water vapor, that then turns into yet another greenhouse gas. Most of the leftover water would then fall to create other bodies of water.
"Hydrogen is transparent to incoming solar light but blocks much of the resulting heat from escaping the same way other greenhouse gases do. On Earth we rarely see its effects since free hydrogen in our atmosphere combines too easily with other molecules". (Lemonick 1). Some factors of the atmosphere disappearing includes, Mar's gravity, solar wind, which would affect the outer layers of the atmosphere. This all remains unquestionable but scientists are still searching for more possibilities. (Lemonick)
http://science.time.com/2013/11/25/how-greenhouse-gasses-saved-mars/
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