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Global Warming Mostly Confirmed - On Mars

Posted by Hemos on from the balmy-times-by-the-mons dept.

dinotrac writes "A just-completed 23 month study, carried out over the course of a Martian year, found that the Martian polar ice caps are rapidly eroding, sending large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the Martian atmosphere. If this pattern continues over time, Mars could go from a planet whose winters are cold enough for dry-ice snow to having a shirt sleeve atmosphere. Humans would still have to provide for oxygen, but plants could go naked. I wonder if this means tougher emission controls on the next Martian rover?"

3 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Stop the destruction!!!!! by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1, Redundant

    We must stop the destruction of the martian environment....the Ice caps are melting and soon the planet will be flooded.........the atmosphere is going to become warm.....we must maintain this bastion of solar system history!!!!

    :-)

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    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  2. Couple of Thoughts by pagsz · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Just a couple of thoughs (from a non-intelligent, non-scientist):
    1. Magnetic Field
      As I understand Mars, even if the CO2 the Martian atmosphere became thicker, it would not be able to hold it for long. This is because at present, Mars does not have a magnetic field as does Earth. Without it, the strong solar wind would strip the atmosphere away. (BTW, this is one theory as to how Mars could have lost its water. It is believed Mars did once have a strong magnetic field, which protected its atmosphere and allowed enough heat to be trapped for liquid water to flow. As the magnetic field died, so did the planet.) However, if Mars was somehow re-establishing its magnetic field (don't ask me how, I just spit out wild, non-sensical theories, I don't explain them), maybe it could.

    2. The Sun
      It occurs to me that this new "development" could be tied to the gradual warming of the sun. Perhaps a threshold has been reached, and is causing the release of Martian CO2 (this un-thought out, unsubstantiated "threshold theory" may also apply to Earth).

    Then again, I could be wrong. Profoundly wrong. Not even within a parsec of the right answer. Most of my posts are that way anyway, why break the trend?

    Looking forward to running naked on Mars (although Mars certainly isn't) . . .
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    -- If any of the above made sense, I assure it was purely by accident.
  3. a YEAR? by psychalgia · · Score: 1, Redundant

    that's stupid
    they studied it for ONE YEAR, and feel they can make this conclusion
    thats a little fuckign drastic, dont you think?

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