Mars

(Chapter 8)
 Why is Mars so popular?
• Began with W. Herschel in late 18th C.
• G. Schiaparelli’s canali in late 19th C.
• P. Lowell dedicated his life to mapping the Martian canali
in early 20th C.

• O. Welles’ “War of the Worlds” in 1938.

• Suggestions NASA used popular fascination with Mars to
promote space program into the 1960s and beyond.
• Two moons, Phobos and Deimos discovered in 1877
8.2
8.3
 Mars today
• Physically about half the size of Earth,
but only 10% its mass.
• Lower density world.
• Temperatures usually well below freezing.

• Little atmosphere; almost entirely carbon dioxide (CO2).

• No Oxygen; harsh UV radiation at surface.
• Dry, arid and desert-like.

8.4
 Habitable?

• Conditions less harsh than the Moon.

• Atmosphere, while thin, moderates temperature
extremes.
• Pressurized habitats an option for humans and crops.
• Soil has some properties similar to Earth’s (e.g., nutrient
rich), though contains more toxins.
• Gravity about 40% and diurnal cycle almost identical to
Earth’s.

• Even if surface temperature above freezing, atmospheric

pressure too low to allow liquid to remain in that state.
• Thus liquid water is unstable on Martian surface,
freezing and/or evaporating almost immediately. 8.5
 Seasons
• Earth experiences seasons because of the tilt (obliquity)
of our axis of rotation (23.5°).
• Mars’ tilt is slightly larger at 25°, but because Mars has
small moons, its rotation axis can wander over time

• Mars orbital period (its “year”) is nearly twice the length

of Earth’s and thus its seasons are twice as long.
8.6
 More extreme seasons
• Mars’ orbit is more eccentric (oblong) than Earth’s.
• As a result, Mars is distinctly closer to the Sun when
its southern hemisphere has its summer season and
significantly further from the Sun during the southern
hemisphere’s winter.

8.7
 More extreme seasons

• Recall Kepler's 2nd law which informs us that planets

move faster in their orbits when closer to the Sun.
• Thus the southern hemisphere's summer is short and
warm, its winter long and cold compared to the northern
hemisphere (where temperatures and seasons are more
even).
(L) North polar cap
during its summer
is primarily water
ice. (R) Note the
“spiralling troughs”
of the cap.
8.8
 Ice caps
• Winter ice caps much larger because carbon dioxide
freezes out of the atmosphere on to water-ice caps.
• The ice sublimates back into the atmosphere in the
summer, shrinking the ice cap accordingly.

Difference between evaporation and sublimation:

Evaporation: From a liquid to a gas
Sublimation: From a solid directly to a gas

• As much as one-third of the atmosphere is engaged in

this cycle causing a significant annual variation in
atmospheric pressure
8.9
Mars environment
• Dust storms arise often,
moving large quantities
of soil, changing the
surface appearance
(revealing or covering
darker underlying rock).

• Dust devils are

generated from
ground heating and
can exceed terrestrial
counterparts in size.
8.10
 Surface features on Mars

• Total surface area on Mars is comparable to the land

area of Earth.
• Large difference between the hemispheres: north rather
smooth and flat, south heavily cratered and rugged.
• Geologically active processes, including possibly a large
impactor, must have played a role in the “younger”
northern hemisphere.

8.11
 Surface features on Mars
• Missions have landed at a
number of sites on Mars and
deployed some rovers

• The rover Curiosity landed near

Gale crater on Aug 6, 2013.
 Major surface features
• The largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons
is fully 600 km across and more than 26 km high off the
W edge of the Tharsis (ridge or region)

• Relatively low gravity aids the generation of height as

does the absence of plate tectonics. “Mantle plumes”
allow a continuous building of volcanic structures.

8.13
 Major surface features

• A huge canyon adorns the equator of Mars just east of

the Tharsis Ridge, Valles Marineris.
• Valles Marineris is a few thousand kilometers long and, in
places, perhaps 5 kilometers deep. A good place to look
for life?
• Unlike Earth's Grand Canyon, Valles Marineris was not
formed by water erosion but by tectonic activity.

Tharsis Ridge 8.14

 Martian geologic history
• A review of the Martian surface allows us to depict the
surface in terms of 3 distinct eras in the planet’s history.
This gives insight into the surface and interior changes
with time.
o Noachian era (oldest)
o Hesperian era (intermediate)
o Amazonian (recent)

• How geologically active is Mars today?

8.15
8.16
 The case for water on Mars
• The evidence is strong and compelling
• Spacecraft imagery of the surface, particularly since 1971
and Mariner 9 reveal riverbed and gulley formations.
• Crater counts near these formations suggest their
creation 2-3 billion years ago, perhaps longer.
• Water once plentiful on the surface of Mars.

8.17
 The case for water on Mars

• From the ground, mineralogical evidence also

compelling. In many locations, one of three types of
hydrated minerals (minerals formed in the presence of
water) have been found:
o Clay minerals
o Hydrated sulphates
o Hydrated silica (opal)
• Opal deposits form in hot springs
and appear in clay minerals in
many places, suggesting water
was present on the surface for at
least 1 billion years. 8.18
 The case for water on Mars

• Many landers and rovers have analyzed the surface

rocks.
• Opportunity and Curiosity in particular have found what
appear to be sedimentary rock structures …

… with hematite spheres or “blueberries” (iron

rich mineral formed in the presence of water) and
sulfur rich minerals such as jarosite. 8.19
 The case for water on Mars

The rover Curiosity has drilled into Martian rocks:

Cumberland (L) in 2014 and Duluth (R) in 2018, finding
ancient hidden water. Most of the water on Mars likely
disappeared about 3.9 billion to 4.6 billion years ago.
(Holes about 5 cm deep and 1.6 cm in diameter.)

8.20
 How much water and how long did it last?

• While ample evidence shows

that water was widespread on
the surface of Mars, how long
it lasted and when it
disappeared remains an open
debate.

• Certainly floodplains and

proximity to volcanoes
suggest linkages in the past.
Undoubtedly good conditions
for primitive life!
8.21
 How much water and how long did it last?
• If all the ice so far detected were to melt, the planet
would be immersed under 11 metres of water. This is
likely a lower limit suggesting a lot of water was once
present on Mars.
• No clear consensus as to whether a full planetary ocean
ever existed but certainly smaller bodies of water did
exist.

8.22
 Water today?
• Whether subsurface water exists today and occasionally
“breaks through” to the surface is unclear.
• Gully formations are now easily detected but did they
form from water excursions of landslides?

Landslide Images from

Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter

8.23
 Mars climate past

• The most likely way the Martian surface was warmer

(and thus wetter) in the past likely was from significant
out-gassing from volcanoes and the accumulation in the
atmosphere of a thick layer of carbon dioxide generating
a Greenhouse Effect.

• This likely occurred about 4 Gyr ago, around the same

time as similar events occurred on Earth.

• Most of the Martian atmosphere was lost, however,

probably about 3 Gyr ago.

8.24
 Climate change
• Two main reasons likely:
o As the planet cooled, the magnetic field weakened
and then disappeared leaving the atmospheric
gasses exposed to solar wind stripping
o No ozone layer, so ultraviolet photodisintegration of
the water molecules led to the escape of hydrogen
into space.

8.25
 Other processes that affect Mars’ climate
• Seasonal changes on Earth arise from the tilt (obliquity)
of our rotation axis relative to our orbital plane. It is
stabilized at 23.5 degrees because of the presence of
our large Moon.
• The axial tilt of Mars varies from 0 to 80 degrees
meaning that substantial seasonal changes can occur on
timescales of 100,000 years!
• When the tilt is large, the polar regions can become
substantially warmer, releasing significant amounts of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, allowing more water
to be available to the environment.
• Whether this effect is enough to allow liquid water to
exist at the surface is doubtful: but maybe water just
beneath the surface can become plentiful! 8.26
8.27
 Mars climate past

• Could Mars have looked like this in the first billion years
after formation?

8.28
 Is Mars Habitable?
• Energy is sufficiently abundant as are the elements for
life itself. Is there enough liquid water?
• In the past, yes. Since we do not know whether life
needs millions or billions of years to develop, it is not
clear if Mars was wet enough long enough. Many
scientists lean towards the likelihood that Mars was
Earth-like long enough to allow life to form.
• Life cannot survive and thrive on the surface today.
• There is evidence to suggest that it is warm enough
beneath the surface for liquid water to exist (at least) in
pockets and thus microbial life may well exist today.
• In short, many positive indicators suggest Mars was or is
habitable. The search for life is warranted!
8.29
 The Search for Life on Mars
• Habitability is one thing: finding life to support the claim
that life did form on Mars is quite another!
• Three lines of evidence at this time:
o The Viking missions (1976)
o Methane in the Martian atmosphere
o Meteoritic evidence

• Two Viking Landers delivered 3 Life Science biology

experiments to the surface of Mars to look for signs of
life and organic molecules. The original consensus was
that the experiments showed a “false positive” and did
NOT actually detect life, revealing little evidence for
organic molecules. 8.30
 The Search for Life on Mars
• But this conclusion has recently been questioned by one
of the scientists involved in one of the Viking lander
experiments, Gilbert Levin, in an opinion piece in
Scientific American entitled, “I’m Convinced We Found
Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s.”

8.31
 The Search for Life on Mars

• Methane (and organic chemicals) has been detected in

the Martian atmosphere. The question is whether the
origin is biological or chemical.
• Methane cannot survive for long periods in the
atmosphere (oxidizes into carbon dioxide and water
vapour).
• Thus for methane to be present at all, there must be an
ongoing source or supply. The source is unknown! It
may be biological… or it may not be.

8.32
 Getting to Mars is a challenge
• As a result of orbital dynamics, Earth and Mars are only in a
position to “exchange” probes every 26 months.
• When we do send spaceprobes to the surface of Mars, we
need to be cognizant of the possibility of contamination.
• A challenge to get the probes safely to Mars!

8.33
 Terraformation of Mars
• Once we get to Mars, what next?
• Some – including scientists and writers – have suggested
that Mars could be Terraformed; i.e., the surface be
transformed into an environment that supports life from
Earth, including (possibly) human life.
• The challenges are formidable, but there may be a way with
appropriate technology.
• But even if we could Terraform Mars, should we?
• There are ethical arguments against Terraformation that
some find compelling.

8.34
 Martian Meteorites: Ages

• There is good evidence that some rocks from

Mars have fallen to Earth; i.e., as meteorites.
• Is this plausible?

• It is possible to date the age of a meteor

exposed to space using cosmic rays (very high-
energy particles in the Galaxy).
• Cosmic rays initiate specific nuclear reactions in
a meteor allowing a radioactive determination of
its age. (Sometimes an age can be determined
by counting microscopic tracks left by cosmic
rays in the meteor.)

8.35
 Mars and Lunar meteorites
Low escape velocities can generate meteors following
energetic (violent) impacts from a meteorite hit on another
planet (L). Collisions between objects in the Solar System
are very common.

Perhaps the most famous meteorite, ALH84001 from Mars

(R). Does it reveal signs of fossilized bacteria, of past life
on Mars? An ongoing debate (though likely not).
8.36