Both Earth and Mars currently have oxidising atmospheres, which is why iron-rich materials in daily life develop rust (a common name for iron oxide) during the oxidation reaction of iron and oxygen. The Earth has had an oxidising atmosphere for approximately 2.5 billion years, but before that, the atmosphere of this planet was reducing—there was no rust. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-planetary-scientists-evidence-atmosphere-ancient.html…
Tag: ancient mars
New evidence for multiple ice ages on Mars
Earth has had at least 5 major ice ages. Now it appears Mars – the next planet outward from the sun – has undergone anywhere from half a dozen to 20 ice ages in the past several hundred million years. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/new-evidence-for-multiple-ice-ages-on-mars…
Sustained planetwide storms may have filled lakes, rivers on ancient Mars
A new study from The University of Texas at Austin is helping scientists piece together the ancient climate of Mars by revealing how much rainfall and snowmelt filled its lake beds and river valleys 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-sustained-planetwide-storms-lakes-rivers.html…
Could ice sheets, not rivers, have formed the channels on Mars?
New research suggests that many of Mars’ ancient channels, thought to have been carved by flowing surface water, were formed instead by meltwater beneath glacial ice sheets. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-river-channels-ice-sheets-devon-island-canadian-arctic-archipelago…