Mars:
Earth’s
little
brother
What are the similarities and differences you notice?
Mars’s axis is tilted at 25 deg. What are
seasons on Mars like?
Mars’s axis tilt changes dramatically. What
happens when the tilt is less/more?
Artist’s depiction of an ‘icy Mars’
Do the Earth and Mars have similar interiors?
Why?
How do we even know what’s inside a planet?
Atmospheres: Are they similar?
Why?
Constituents:
Nitrogen: 78%
Carbon Doxide: 95.%
Oxygen: 21 %
Nitrogen: 3%
Argon: 0.9%
Argon: 2%
Water: > 1%
Oxygen: 0.1%
Carbon Doxide: 0.002%
Water: > 0.03%
Is there water on Mars? Why or why not?
Is there water on Mars? Why or why not?
Mars’s south pole
Is there water on Mars? Why or why not?
Partial Pressure of Water
Phase Diagram of Water
Earth
Mars
Temperature
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Columbia Hills, Mars
Atacama Desert, Chile
Columbia Hills, Mars
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Kilauea Volcanoe, Hawaii
Olympus Mons, Mars
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Dubai, UAE
Endurance Crater, Mars
What is the evidence for past water on Mars?
Mars or Earth?
Mars or Earth?
Djado Plateau, Niger
Valles Marineris, Mars
Mars or
Earth?
Mars or
Earth?
Holden Crater NE, Mars
Lena Delta, Argentina
Mars or
Earth?
Yemen
Mars or
Earth?
Mars
Mars or
Earth?
Mars or
Earth?
Niger
Mars
Seven minutes of terror
Curiosity descent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZX5GRPnd4U
Google Mars
Mars: Take-away messages
•Although smaller than Earth, Mars and Earth are similar
in many ways.
•Mars and Earth have similar interiors, although Mars has
no liquid outer core, and so no magnetic field.
•Mars geology is/was formed by cratering, volcanism,
tectonics and erosion by wind AND WATER!
•(Plate tectonics doesn’t seem to have been important)
•Mars’s atmosphere is very different from Earth’s - lower
mass, and full of CO2.
•Mars’s small atmosphere and low temperature makes
liquid water unstable at its surface (at least right now).
Percival Lowell’s Mars
Lowell’s Map of Mar published in 1895
Viking’s Mars
1976
Viking’s Mars
1976