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Is it possible that other greenhouse gasses than CO2 were present that helped keep water liquid? Or maybe the planet produced enough internal heat to warm up th
by Swizec 10y ago
Is it possible that other greenhouse gasses than CO2 were present that helped keep water liquid? Or maybe the planet produced enough internal heat to warm up the surface beyond freezing? Or atmosphere, whatever it was, was thick enougj to produce high pressures that kept water liquid despite freezing temperatures?
Surely if water was liquid and CO2 was not there, those must be the only possible scenarios? Or a combination of them, of course.
- xjwm 10y agoMethane is more potent than CO2, but fairly short lived. Maybe Mars had more Methane in the distant past? If a 95% CO2 atmosphere isn't enough green house gas for liquid water, I'd assume internal heat played some sort of role.
- cesis 10y agoMethane is short-lived because of oxygen.
- ChuckMcM 10y agoMy guess is methane as well, Mars still "breathes" out methane occasionally[1]. Given that chunks of Mars have been kicked off the planet and landed on Earth, I wonder if you modeled a chunk of Titan's methane ice being kicked off Titan and hitting Mars would have the effect of filling out enough of Mars' atmosphere to warm it. [1] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/306/5702/1758 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/306/5702/1758
- phkahler 10y agoHow about water? It's a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. I'm aware that the suggestion presents another mystery, but at least it's an obvious greenhouse gas that was present on Mars.