
Mars may be emerging from an ice age, according to a new study - jonbaer
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/26/11772702/mars-ice-age-climate-change
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mathgeek
Following this story for the last couple days, it's interesting to see that
based on the same research, the headlines have become more and more certain of
the results. What started as "Mars may be emerging from an ice age..." has
quickly morphed into "Mars is emerging from an ice age..."

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cschmidt
Like this
[http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174)

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Aelinsaar
That's interesting, and of course ice ages have probably helped Mars retain
more of its water than it otherwise would have, since it doesn't have a strong
and protective magnetosphere.

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mrfusion
How amazing would it be if this triggered runaway global warming and Mars
terraformed itself?

But even just a few degrees warmer might still be very interesting.

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ccozan
Without an atmosphere, would be hard to start a greenhouse effect on Mars. [1]
Carbon dioxide, as well as methane, have been long detected, but you need
large amounts of these gases.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#Atmosphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#Atmosphere)

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mrfusion
I counter your link with this one:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars)

There is presently enough carbon dioxide (CO2) as dry ice in the Martian south
pole and absorbed by regolith (soil) on Mars that, if sublimated to gas by a
climate warming of only a few degrees, would increase the atmospheric pressure
to 30 kilopascals (0.30 atm),[26][not in citation given] comparable to the
altitude of the peak of Mount Everest, where the atmospheric pressure is 33.7
kilopascals (0.333 atm). Although this would not be breathable by humans, it
is above the Armstrong limit and would eliminate the present need for pressure
suits

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huxley
For how long? Won't the lack of a global magnetosphere on Mars make that a
relatively short term "fix"?

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cgriswald
For hundreds of millions of years if not billions. It takes a long time for
the solar wind to push that amount of gas away from a place with gravity even
in the absence of a magnetic field.

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blisterpeanuts
I'd like to see Venus go _towards_ an Ice Age, which might bring down the
surface temperatures from average 462 degrees Celsius to Earth norms, and then
maybe the place could be relatively habitable, albeit still with 96% CO2 and
clouds of sulphuric acid to deal with.

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Pxtl
The insane air-pressure ruins it. Basically, the solution to terraforming
Venus is to convert the CO2 into water. The problem is that this requires
hydrogen that's not readily available to do it. A lot of it.

How much?

At 1 Earth atmosphere, imagine a balloon filled with Hydrogen the size of the
planet Mars. It would take two of those.

But then you could scrape enough CO2 out of the atmosphere to make oceans and
Earth pressure.

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ccozan
But who on Earth is so fond of CO2? right, plants via photosyntesis.

So why not sending green algae on Venus to harvest that CO2? When the temp
drops, send something else, like trees.

Quite SF, but would worth a calculation.

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colechristensen
If you want plants to do it, you need water, and there isn't any. The solar
wind blew it all away.

Not just because "plants need water", because the chemistry is CO2 + H20 => O2
+ carbohydrate

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ccozan
Indeed, you are right. Interesing link on this subject [1], it explains a bit
more in detail the greenhouse runway process.

[1]
[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/physics/astrocourses/AST101/re...](http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/physics/astrocourses/AST101/readings/water_on_venus.html)

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animel
`emerging` from something that `ended 400,000 years ago`. right.

