Water and Life on Mars
Mars perhaps first caught public interest in the late 1870s, when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported using a telescope to observe canali, or channels, on Mars. By the turn of the century, popular songs told of sending messages between Earth and Mars by means of huge signal mirrors. On a darker side, H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds portrayed an invasion of Earth by technologically superior Martians desperate for water. (1) In the early 1900s novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is best known his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan, also entertained young readers with tales of adventures among the exotic inhabitants of Mars, which he called Barsoo. (2)
It was hoped that Mars had ample
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Mars possesses polar caps at both poles. Frozen ice accumulates as a thin layer about one meter thick on the north cap in the northern winter only, while the south cap has a permanent ice cover about eight meters thick. (7) The northern polar cap has a diameter of approximately 1,000 kilometers during the northern Mars summer and contains about 1.6 million cubic kilometers of ice. The southern cap has a diameter of 350 kilometers. Both polar caps show spiral cuts, which presently remain unexplained. Both polar caps also shrink and regrow following the temperature fluctuation of the Martian seasons as shown in Figure 5.
In the winter months when the poles are in continuous darkness, the surface gets so cold that as much as 30% of the entire atmosphere condenses out into thick slabs of CO2 ice or dry ice. When the poles are again exposed to sunlight the CO2 ice sublimates. This phenomenon creates enormous winds that sweep off the poles as fast at 250 mph. These seasonal actions transport large amounts of dust and water vapor, bringing forth an Earth-like frost and large cirrus clouds. (8) Some evidence suggests that the planet was once significantly more habitable than it is today, but whether living organisms ever existed there is still a question open for further research and debate. The Viking probes of the mid-1970s carried experiments designed to detect
The planet Mars is a red plant that is found in the Solar System in the Milky Way Galaxy one planets farther from the sun than Earth. The planet Mars has a very thin atmosphere full of primarily carbon dioxide. The surface of Mars is very dusty and rocky because of volcanoes. The geology of Mars is different from Earth in many ways including the amount of volcanoes, mountains, valleys, and internal makeup.
Mars is a rocky body about half the size of Earth. Like Earth, Mars experiences seasons because of the tilt of its rotational axis, so its distance to the sun changes, according to NASA (n.d.). Telescope observations show water-iced clouds, polar ice, and volcanoes. Mars has the largest Volcanic Mountain in the solar system, named the Olympus Mons and has two moons in its orbit.
Mars has ice hidden underground. If scientists are able to heat up Mars to melt the ice it would evaporate into the air. The evaporated ice will create clouds, then it will be able to snow and rain.
The global structure of Mars is well documented through viewings by scientists. However, without actually stepping foot on the planet, all we know of it is through observation. Due to this, the issue of plate tectonics on Mars is a contested issue. While scientists are sure that the core of Mars is not active, which means no plate tectonics; they cannot be sure that there was never a time when there were.
Ever since the origin of Earth was found, this question has wandered in the air. What will happen when Earth becomes uninhabitable? Scientists have turned to the next closest planet to Earth, Mars. There have been signs in the past of life on Mars. Many think that space exploration could be a reality. On the other hand, many think that the thought itself is unreasonable. Despite the sheet of ice found on Mars (Source D) and the possibility of extremophiles surviving in harsh conditions, the possibility of life on Mars is, indeed, a fantasy. The environment on Mars is too harsh to live in, there have been no signs of life on
20. Although it is much colder on Mars than on Earth, the similar tilt of Earth’s and Mars’ axes means they have similar seasons. Like Earth's, Mars’ north and south polar caps shrink in the summer and grow in the winter. In addition, a day on Mars is 24 hours 37 minutes—nearly the same as Earth’s. No other planet shares such similar characteristics with Earth.e 21. Mars’ seasons are twice as long as those on Earth because it takes Mars 687 days to orbit the sun, twice as long as Earth’s 365-day journey.a 22. With no large moon like Earth’s to stabilize it, Mars periodically tilts much more toward the sun, creating warmer summers on Mars than it otherwise would have.d 23. The Earth’s moon is 240,000 miles away. Earth’s next closest neighbor is Venus, which comes as near as 24 million miles. After the moon and Venus, Mars is our next closest neighbor at 34 million miles away—though when Mars and Earth are at the opposite sides of their orbits around the sun, they are separated by 249 million miles.e 24. Mars is home to Hellas, a vast and featureless plain that covers 1300 miles (the size of the Caribbean Sea). It was created by asteroids crashing into the planet’s surface of Mars
Oliver Sacks is a very famous doctor of neurology as well as a writer. He spent most of his adult life treating patients. Oliver Sacks mostly concentrated on disorders of the brain and nervous system. In a lot of the cases that Sacks dealt with, there was nothing he was able to do to heal the patients. His goal was to find a way to live with and accept their condition as well as possible. Sacks enjoyed dealing with cases mostly about experiences of real people struggling to live with unusual conditions. That’s where he wanted to find ways to help these patients to the best of his and medical ability out there. Throughout his cases he studied he came across patients who had different
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury, is a science-fiction book and was written in 1946. This major work by Bradbury is a collection of short stories relating to Mars or Martians. Bradbury had a clear vision of the Mars in which these stories are set. His vision was one of a fantasy world from the Martians point of view. In this work, the humans from Earth are the aliens from outer space. Bradbury has won many awards including the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the Aviation-Space Writers Association Award, the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement, and the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bradbury supported his awards
costs six billion dollars just to send a couple of people to Mars. The people in which are organizing this expedition say it can be done by 2027. Colonizing Mars is a terrible idea, since people are risking their lives, there is not a natural source of water on Mars, and it costs a tremendously outrageous price to reach Mars.
Life is unpredictable and that is the beauty of science fiction; writers are able to create a world, which is plausible enough to engage an audience and suck them into a world they may have never experienced before reading that book. The human condition, in these very situations, becomes delicate and fragile even though real people have not lived through them because these sci-fi worlds relate to moments we all understand. The themes of fear, survival, persistence, resilience, and the power of the human spirit are undeniable experiences that transcends all cultural barriers and languages. All of these also hold true in the book The Martian, written by Andy Weir. Although all of these themes hold true in The Martian, the theme of ingenuity shows
Preview Statement: The possibility of life on mars is an extravagant topic to look at. Before that, we must analyze Mars itself along with its conditions. First, we will talk about the ice caps located on Mars. Second, we will examine the water streaks on Mars. Third we will observe if the red planet is inhabitable for humans to conquer it.
(Sony, 2003) Bibliography: Mars (2001) MyPetstop.co.uk [Online] Mars Incorporated.
The numerous ice ages documented on this planet that have shaped its contours, offers us incredible
4. What is the difference between all-unit quantity discount and incremental discount schedules? How would the costs and EOQs differ? Which would be preferable assuming that both share the same cost figures?
Mars is the planet nearest to Earth that we are most likely to explore and send