Oktay74tn
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Mars' Atmospheric Sputtering
Oktay Yürük aka Oktay74tn, science and tech content
https://imgur.com/user/Oktay74tn
The Martian atmosphere is very thin. Without a global magnetic field, there is no protection from the solar wind. The surface pressure is only 0.6 percent of that on Earth.
For the first time, astronomers have observed the sputtering of the Martian atmosphere. The charged particles from the Sun hit the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere in the -E hemisphere and transfer energy (E is the motional electric field). Some of the newly energized neutral atoms and molecules can escape in the +E hemisphere to space.
This picture from the MAVEN mission shows the loss of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen on Mars. Today, the atmosphere is losing gas at a rate of 2–3 kilograms per second.
In the future, these results could be used to develop an artificial magnetic shield for Mars. This would make the atmosphere thicker and temperatures would slowly rise.
First direct observations of atmospheric sputtering at Mars
Shannon M. Curry, Takuya Hara, Janet G. Luhmann, Francois Leblanc, et al.
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.adt1538
Scientists Have Clear Evidence of Martian Atmosphere 'Sputtering'
Michelle Starr
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-clear-evidence-of-martian-atmosphere-sputtering
How did Mars lose its atmosphere and water?
Bruce M. Jakosky
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/75/4/62/2842795/How-did-Mars-lose-its-atmosphere-and-water-They
Wikipedia articles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_escape
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAVEN
Mars series
Liquid Water In Mars' Upper Crust
https://imgur.com/gallery/liquid-water-mars-upper-crust-E6YVIU3
Mars Moon Deimos Captured By Hera
https://imgur.com/gallery/mars-moon-deimos-captured-by-hera-pyEcZyX
Mars Terraforming With Kuiper Belt Objects
https://imgur.com/gallery/mars-terraforming-with-kuiper-belt-objects-0THqaUg
AlmostClever
Rosenaa
With that kind of colors - We scould re-name Mars... ;-) And I just Know what comes in mind ;-)
thevoiddancer
YOU CAN'T JUST SHOOT A HOLE IN MARS!!!
Wirefish
Still cheaper to address the problems on the home planet rather than giving billionaires an escape to Planet Galt with their own population of indentured workers.
SwiftyGuy
Nah, let ‘em escape to Mars. They won’t come back and Mars will very likely kill ‘em.
TsubakiTragic
If we have the technology/enthusiasm to repair Mars' atmosphere then I would prefer that the boffins worked on solving Earth's problems.
randomstringofletters
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlYnYzdXczOWxtbW9ld3U4aHF5bXBzbTF0MnRpemp3OG13engzNGtuciZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/l0Hlz5lgL5tyynaNi/giphy.mp4
SpamYarBlockers
Why do people always design mars gear in orange and red. Wouldn’t you want hi-vis yellow or green for safety?
Nevernotknowing
Fuck mars, fix earth
FlintNorth44
They still think Mars is a "next best" option. I grew out of that a few years ago after learning how impossible life on Mars would be.
SwiftyGuy
Might as well put people on the Moon. It’s closer and the tech for colonization can be perfected there before moving on to Mars. Just GETTING to Mars is very difficult. Then there’s the very little water there except for the poles…right along with that solid CO2 in the winter… yeah ain’t no one gonna be successfully living there for a very looooong damn time.
Randomstarfighter
Elon disliked this comment already
FlintNorth44
Fuck Elon. He's a nazi.
FlintNorth44
"In the future, these results could be used to develop an artificial magnetic shield for Mars. This would make the atmosphere thicker and temperatures would slowly rise."
JimiFloyd2
You are right, everything in this post is laughable nonsense. Did you notice the sun's radiation to earth stopping without a cause?
FlintNorth44
It's not just the lack of a magnetosphere. Life on Mars is just a rich person's pipe dream and a way to sell further destroying the only planet we can live on.
ButMyOtherMomSaysImCool
Two weeks
CitrusyGarlic
I wish I could give someone an award every time they force me to look up a new word, this time it was sputtering: Sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas.
madrush
huh interesting. I thought sputtering is what my engine does whenever I pull up to a stop light
HardcoreMango
bottledham
Not anymore I don't...
TelvanniWizard
Sputtering is also used as a manufacturing process for applying thin film coatings! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputter_deposition
CitrusyGarlic
Wait a minute, I thought the Telvanni didn't share their secrets with anyone...
wyrmbear
That's gonna be one hell of a magnet to create a shield for Mars...at least two of those horseshoe bars my grandkids play with at school.
JackDeHearts
I played Terraforming mars and i assure you it can be done in about 5 generations :P
TheDildoOfConsequences
I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, which says about the same.
EnhydraLutra
Jokes aside, the neat thing is that it wouldn't take an unreasonable amount of energy or engineering to create a magnetic shield to protect Mars. You just have to create it at the Lagrangian point between Mars and the Sun. You don't have to create a planet wide shield, just one wide enough and far enough away to cast a wide electromagnetic shadow behind it.
Hashbrown123
Or we could just launch a few asteroids from the belt at it. That would restart the core.
Mehlbox
I understand that a shadow shield would work well with a small source of radiation, like a reactor, shielding a spaceship. But the sun has about 200 times the diameter of Mars... if we assume that the surface area of the sun that sends charged particles in the direction of Mars is just about 10 times Mars' diameter, you'd still need a shadwo shield with a diameter larger than Mars; and it has to compensate for the radiation pressure constantly pushing it out of L1.
Yakeshinu
I mean, sure, but we could also just get Quaid to start the reactor.
tachyx
Let's do that while burning our own environment with CO2
EnhydraLutra
Good News: The technology to create that kind of magnetic umbrella is far enough into the future that we can work on global warming. I mean, baby steps, we have to get to the Moon again first.
Canigetbannedagain2
I get the joke, but CO2... Doesn't burn.
minant
It does if you're in a fluorine atmosphere!
RanOutofWit
I like to think of the bright side. The technologies we develop to control our own greenhouse effect may someday be used to terraform Venus! I mean, if we live that long. Gotta hope, right?
MapleSyrupMafia
Narrator's voice: But we won't!