/sci/ - Science & Math

Question

What formed the Valles marineris canyon chain on Mars?

How about a science related images thread.

>>3652413
Mars can hold an atmosphere for millions of years without any kind of extra protective technology such as an artificial planetary magnetic field.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/24011
>Answer: You are absolutely correct. Mars is a small planet, and hence it's gravitational field is not strong enough to permanently hold onto a dense atmosphere, but it is sufficient to hold onto an atmosphere for thousands to millions of years, which is enough for us. Once we terraform Mars, there will be enough of an atmosphere to take of all our needs for generations to come.

And the difference between Mars and Earth in terms of support for living organisms isn't as extreme as you think, provided there is a relatively thick atmosphere. Life adapts.

So, any colonization of Earth would be impermanent because Earth is around a fast-burning G2V star, which will mean it's surface will not have liquid water for more than a billion years.

Hundreds of millions of years does not require tampering. And this is fully excluding future discoveries and superprojects humans might have in mind, such as creating a cylinder which spins so it doesn't fall down to Mars which can shield its atmosphere from being slowly eroded away.

As for asteroids adding mass, if we wanted to create anything near the mas/gravity of Earth, we would have to literally smoosh Venus and Mars together to produce about 0.98Gs, while in the process scattering debris from that colossal impact all over the solar system and removing any previous ice caps or permafrost layer with the impact. Not to mention the resultant planet wouldn't be round and have a solid crust for at least tens of thousands of years.