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Science Forum Index » Environment Forum » It's 'summer' on mars and earth
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| Dr. Convection |
 Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2003 8:35 pm |
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From:
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/techscience/story/0,4386,225891,00.html
It's 'summer' on mars and earth
Both now seeing warm period between ice ages
PARIS - Earth and its companion planet, Mars, are both enjoying a period of
warm climate between their respective ice ages, according to a study
published today in British science weekly Nature.
Pictures sent back by United States orbiters have shown that Mars has
'dusty, water-ice-rich mantling deposits' in layers that are metres thick.
'These deposits were formed during a geologically recent ice age that
occurred from about 2.1 million to 400,000 years ago,' it suggests. 'Mars is
at present in an 'inter-glacial' period.'
Earth, too, is considered to be between two ice ages - the last one ended
some 11,000 years ago, helping the rise of Homo sapiens as a species - but
for quite different reasons, according to the study.
The finger of suspicion in Earth's regular bouts of glaciation points to
slight variations in the planet's orbit around the Sun and a minor 'wobble'
in its rotation around its axis.
In Mars' case, the last ice age probably happened when the planet tilted,
according to the authors led by Brown University's James Head.
That would have caused its polar regions to warm, causing water vapour to
migrate to lower, cooler latitudes. There, the vapour consolidated in the
startling deposits seen, which have been interpreted as being rich in water
ice. These features are at locations that are at much lower latitudes than
on Earth - the equivalent of finding an ice sheet in Saudi Arabia or
Florida.
So far, there is only visual and radar data to suggest there is water on
Mars, although within a few months, solid evidence may emerge to confirm, or
not, the presence of the precious substance.
The European Space Agency is scheduled to send down a lander, Beagle 2, on
Dec 25, and this will be followed next month by two US rovers. -- AFP |
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