ASTA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Solar Wind, Star System, Flattening
Document Summary
Volcanic outgassing provided the young mars with an atmosphere 400 times denser than. Consequently, mars should have had a strong green house effect in the past which in turn made its climate more hospitable. Mars however has lost a huge quantity of co2 as well as water. So far, there is not enough evidence to show an abundance of carbonaceous rocks on. Mars so we cannot conclude that water washed co2 from the atmosphere. So mars has lost a signi cant part of its atmosphere. Smaller escape velocity : huge impacts will throw atmosphere gases into space. Lack of ozone layer: uv radiation from the sun breaks water molecules. Hydrogen escapes while oxygen if not lost reacts and form oxides. Solar wind stripping: as mars cooled, it lost its magnetosphere and thus became vulnerable to solar wind which keeps stripping off gas from the atmosphere. Jupiter, saturn, uranus and neptune are called the jovian planets.
