Where did all the water on Mars go? What caused Mars to dry up?

Mars has always been the focus of attention, especially in recent months, because of Elon? Musk announced that he would launch a manned rocket to land on Mars. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States envisages that humans will land on Mars in 2040.

It would be great if you could make Mars a colony soon.

Although some recent progress will open a new era for us to explore and develop the nearest planet, we have the following doubts about the realization of human landing on Mars. One of them is that there is very little water on the surface of Mars. But Mars once had a lot of water. ...

In 197 1 year, NASA put Mariner-9 spacecraft into Mars orbit and gained some insights about the surface of Mars. They found traces of ancient river beds on the dusty and dry surface of this planet. This discovery surprised people, because before that, most scientists thought that Mars had always been a barren planet.

Illustration: River-Photo The photo of Mariner 9 shows that there are several rivers left over from ancient times on the surface of Mars.

Another declaration about the early water sources on the surface of Mars comes from Dr. Tim? Puckle. He is a doctoral student at the University of Southern California, and? Ocean conjecture on Mars? The sponsor of. This conjecture holds that the surface of Mars in ancient times was composed of some coastlines and valleys. These coastlines and basins used to have lakes. In 2000, Michael, a scientist who conducted global research on Mars? Marin and Ken? Another feature of Edgette's exploration shows that Mars once had water. All the above statements show that Mars was indeed rich in water resources perhaps millions of years ago.

Illustration: Wet Mars-If there is water on Mars, what is the artist's impression of Mars (Source: Kevin? Jill)

Why did Mars dry up? After the first photo sent back by Mariner 9 showed that there was water on the surface of Mars, the astronauts put forward some hypotheses to explain why the water on Mars suddenly disappeared. One hypothesis is that it was caused by climate change 600 million years after the formation of Mars, and then a series of volcanic eruptions shook the whole planet and caused floods.

Illustration: The surface of Mars-it looks like this on Mars at an altitude of 2,500 kilometers. The center of Mars is the Anemone Mountains, which are 3,000 kilometers long and 8 kilometers deep. The river flows from the center to the north, and the eastern part of the Anemone Mountains extends to the acid plane in the dark area at the upper right. On the left are three Tasis volcanoes, and on the south is the ancient impact terrain.

This assumption was questioned when the "Mars atmosphere and its impermanent evolution" (MAVEN) spacecraft was sent to monitor the upper atmosphere of Mars and send the preliminary observations back to NASA.

Looking back at the data sent back by MAVEN, we can find that Mars lost water because of the solar wind and the lack of sustainable planetary magnetic field.

As we all know, the planet's atmosphere not only provides important gas for life, but also protects the planet from the dense solar wind, because the solar wind contains charged particles (electrons and protons) from the sun. Today, there is an atmosphere somewhere on Mars, but its atmosphere has gradually lost its magnetic field since 4 million years ago, so it is becoming more and more fragile.

Illustration: Magnetic Field Against the Solar Wind-How does the magnetic field expressed by an artist protect the earth from the solar wind?

You see, the planetary magnetic field counteracts most of the charged particles in the solar wind blowing to the earth, thus protecting the atmosphere. Without the protection of the magnetic field, the atmosphere will be stripped off the planet by the solar wind. This is exactly what happened on Mars millions of years ago, which caused the water on Mars to easily evaporate and disappear, leaving only the extremely dry surface we see today.

MAVEN not only helped solve the mystery that Mars once had water, but also made some exciting discoveries about the red ball near us. These discoveries are especially helpful for us to understand our nearest neighbors in the solar system. This is very important for us to understand Mars better, so now we know it better than before. If the recent plan to immigrate to Mars is finally realized, we will build a community on this red planet in the next few years.

The globalization of Mars is to transform Mars into a planet suitable for human habitation, that is, into an environment similar to Earth. Held in the United States in August 2003? International Conference on Migration Research on Mars? Mars Earthization proposes to transform Mars into a planet in the next few centuries, making it the second home for future human beings.

Illustration: Simulating the geochemical process of Mars

The feasibility of this concept depends on whether the environment of Mars can be changed by artificial means and the feasibility of establishing an artificial biosphere. However, many solutions have been put forward, some of which are not allowed and restricted by economic and natural resources, but some are technically feasible at present.