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harsh winds
2008-Nov-23, Sunday 10:37 amAccording to my calculations, which I already know are too simplistic, the Earth can gravitationally hold onto all of its atmosphere except for hydrogen (atomic or molecular). By the same calculations, Mars can retain all but hydrogen and helium. But then where is the atmosphere on Mars? NASA has a new report that the solar wind (and the weird magnetosphere on Mars) may be to blame.
Earth is not a single magnetic dipole. Instead, our planet has a series of monopoles. They all happen to generally align well so we have a strong overall "uniform" magnetic shield around our planet. Mars is not so lucky. Its monopoles are apparently weaker and more distributed, so they stand out as little umbrella shields over their regional area, mostly in the southern hemisphere. Where these mushroom bubbles spring out, general turbulence and also magnetic reconnection with the solar wind can rip out whole chunks of atmosphere at once.
Like little spiders sending out their spinner web to catch the wind and fly aloft, so does Mars lose whole pockets of air to the solar wind stream inside magnetic "balloons".
Kinda sad, in a way. So terraforming Mars will not be as easy as I had hoped. It will not simply be a matter of reintroducing the appropriate molecules (as in the movie Total Recall). The planetary magnetic field would need to be altered first.
Earth is not a single magnetic dipole. Instead, our planet has a series of monopoles. They all happen to generally align well so we have a strong overall "uniform" magnetic shield around our planet. Mars is not so lucky. Its monopoles are apparently weaker and more distributed, so they stand out as little umbrella shields over their regional area, mostly in the southern hemisphere. Where these mushroom bubbles spring out, general turbulence and also magnetic reconnection with the solar wind can rip out whole chunks of atmosphere at once.
Like little spiders sending out their spinner web to catch the wind and fly aloft, so does Mars lose whole pockets of air to the solar wind stream inside magnetic "balloons".
Kinda sad, in a way. So terraforming Mars will not be as easy as I had hoped. It will not simply be a matter of reintroducing the appropriate molecules (as in the movie Total Recall). The planetary magnetic field would need to be altered first.