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"4 billion years ago, Mars had large oceans and lakes, and even the geological features of inland seas", astronomers believe that 4 billion years ago, Mars was a truly habitable planet in the solar system.
Astronomers are curious about the presence of oceans and signs of life on Mars, what kind of planet was Mars at that time?
Today, Mars has become known as the Red Planet, the direct cause of which is the loss of its atmosphere, without which Mars can never become a habitable planet.
So how did Mars lose its atmosphere to become a Red Planet?
1. Mars 4 billion years ago.
Scientists have been searching for other habitable planets in the solar system for decades, and the latest Mars exploration has shed new light on Mars.
Astronomers, however, constructed a habitable model of Mars more than 40 years ago, when oceans, lakes and atmosphere existed 4 billion years ago.
In 1971, Mariner 3 probe detected the presence of rivers and riverbeds on Mars for the first time, a discovery that proved that liquid surface water existed on Mars billions of years ago.
Later probes continue to find more and more evidence that Mars was once a wet planet four billion years ago.
In 2004, the American probe "Opportunity" carried out the first excavation of soil samples at an altitude of 2 meters on the surface of Mars, and after some exploration, a large number of silicates, salts and other chemicals were found on the samples, which are produced by the long-term action of water on the soil.
In 2015, the Phoenix spacecraft also found a large number of salt fossils in the soil excavated at the north pole of Mars, which further proves that liquid water once existed on Mars.
Scientists believe that Mars, with its atmosphere and oceans, was a truly habitable planet, and not only that, but Mars had a longer time than Earth at that time.
So by observing the geological and climatic features of Mars, scientists have guessed that Mars was 4 billion years old.
At that time, Mars was very wet, the sky was covered with large clouds, and at sunset and sunrise, Mars had a brilliant halo.
Under the light of the starry sky, Mars at night is also very spectacular, the sky full of stars twinkles in the night sky, and the beautiful halo surrounds Mars, this scene is very wonderful.
However, in addition to the beautiful sights, Mars is rich in vegetation and marine life, which are life forms formed by a certain evolution of life on Earth.
Most of these life forms are microorganisms, but their presence proves that Mars was once a habitable planet.
Scientists have carefully studied and calculated that the temperature on Mars 4 billion years ago was about 20 degrees Celsius, which is just the right temperature for the birth of the ocean and life.
With the movement of the earth's crustal plates, the magma erupted by volcanoes flows into the ocean, and there is hydrological activity on the bottom of the sea, and the hydrological activity of the seabed will spray the dissolved minerals and solutes in the seawater to the bottom of the sea through hot water fountains, thus forming primary organisms.
The Martian ocean is also similar to the birth principle of life, so 4 billion years ago, there were many biological and chemical components in the Martian ocean, not only that, but the salt division in the seawater can also support life.
In the marine environment, the birth of organisms is inseparable from chemical reactions, and a suitable biological reaction environment will give birth to many organisms, and this is the environment of the ocean on Mars 4 billion years ago.
Therefore, many astronomers believe that there is life on Mars, but the most direct way to truly prove that there is life on Mars is to observe the Martian ocean, but this is very difficult, so there is no similar probe at present.
However, astronomers have been discussing what life was like on Mars 4 billion years ago, but if it is really discovered, it will have a great impact on the future landing of humans on Mars for exploration.
2. Mars becomes the Red Planet.
Four billion years ago, Mars had not only oceans, but also a large atmosphere.
We know that the earth's atmosphere will form an ozone layer to absorb cosmic rays and solar rays, so as to block the damage of cosmic rays and solar rays, and prevent the damage of cosmic rays and solar rays to the earth's organisms, and the atmosphere of Mars also has a thick ozone layer.
The ozone layer can also maintain the temperature of the earth, so that the temperature of the earth is at a temperature suitable for the survival of organisms, so that all the substances in the atmosphere are vaporized, so that a stable atmospheric environment is formed.
However, the atmosphere of Mars cannot form an ozone layer because there is no atmospheric environment, and Mars without an ozone layer cannot maintain a stable atmospheric environment, which leads to a large rise and fall in the temperature of Mars, which causes the water vapor in the atmosphere to condense into liquid water, part of the water will be deposited on the surface, and the other part of the water will evaporate into water vapor.
In the atmosphere, water vapor forms rain and rains, which moistens flowers and plants, and absorbs greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and silica from the atmosphere.
This makes the climate of Mars milder, but over time, the temperature of Mars decreases little by little, causing the water vapor in the atmosphere to start to cool down, which begins to condense into rain.
Four billion years ago, the rain on Mars was more like a downpour from the sky, and the intense rainfall caused the water temperature in the ocean to drop dramatically, so that the water vapor in the ocean condensed into rain, and the rain precipitated the salt in the ocean to the surface.
Over time, the oceans on Mars became shallow and eventually dried up, forming a large number of dry salt lakes on Mars, and as the climate of Mars gradually cooled, eventually the water froze all.
However, astronomers have found that the atmosphere on Mars disappeared 4 billion years ago, but the disappearance of the atmosphere is fatal for Mars, without the atmosphere, the air pressure will be smaller, so that it cannot absorb cosmic rays and solar rays, so that the surface temperature of Mars will drop rapidly.
Scientists speculate that 4 billion years ago, the inner core of Mars began to cool, so that it lost the current that produced the magnetic field, and without the current that produced the magnetic field, the current would run out of energy over time, and eventually the current would stop producing the magnetic field.
After Mars loses its magnetic field, the sun's radiation will directly hit the surface of Mars, which will make the temperature of Mars rise sharply, and a large amount of liquid water will begin to evaporate, but without atmospheric protection, the evaporated water will leak directly, so the atmosphere of Mars will become thinner and thinner, and eventually the atmosphere will disappear.
Therefore, Mars today is a red planet with no atmosphere, but the atmosphere of 4 billion years ago is gone, and will it never return to Mars?
3. There is still liquid water in the ground inside Mars.
Through the analysis of Martian data, scientists believe that the interior of Mars is very rich, not only with a large number of heavy elements that are basically the same as on Earth, but also with hundreds of millions of tons of liquid water.
The interior of Mars is so rich that it is inevitable that astronomers will wonder if there is a possibility that there is a large amount of life on Mars, but if there is life, it will cause great trouble for the future exploration of the earth.
However, astronomers have not given up on the exploration of Mars, and these planets that can prove that Mars was once habitable have also become the goal of astronomers' exploration, and exploring the bottom of Mars is currently the most direct way to find out whether there is life on Mars.
There are many crater lakes on Earth, and although acid rain and toxic gases in the atmosphere have greatly changed the environment of crater lakes, there are still many primitive life forms underneath them.
Therefore, scientists have set their sights on the crater lake on Mars, although there are toxic gases in the atmosphere of Mars, there are chemicals on Mars that form zirconium tetrachloride, which will make zirconium tetrachloride very thin, so astronomers have borrowed this property to explore the crater lake on Mars.
After landing at the North Pole of Mars, the Phoenix spacecraft explored the chemicals in the crater lake of Mars, and although it did not find zirconium tetrachloride, it detected chemicals that can dilute zirconium tetrachloride.
This suggests that the chemicals in the crater lake of Mars will dilute zirconium tetrachloride, which indicates that there are signs of life in the crater lake of Mars.
There is also water at the bottom of the ocean on Mars, so there is liquid water underground, and scientists have estimated the composition of the Martian atmosphere, and they also believe that there must be liquid water underground.
Therefore, NASA used the InSight probe to send it to Mars to explore the liquid water under Mars, and finally InSight detected a large amount of liquid water under Mars.
However, the Earth can curb atmospheric pollution by purifying the atmosphere, and the best way for Mars is to transform Mars and help Mars regenerate its atmosphere.
epilogue
4 billion years ago, Mars was a habitable planet, but now that Mars is a red planet, if we really want to transform Mars, we must remelt the core of Mars, so that Mars can regenerate its magnetic field, which can help Mars regenerate its atmosphere, so as to better transform Mars.
Extended perspective
Astronomers believe that the cooling of Mars' inner core has caused Mars to lose its magnetic field and atmosphere, and whether it is possible to maintain Mars' magnetic field through artificial measures?
Therefore, it has been proposed to protect the magnetic field of Mars by creating an artificial magnetic field, so as to help Mars regenerate the atmospheric environment.
However, this method is also a more reliable way, but if it really causes the magnetic field of Mars, after 4 billion years, the magnetic field of Mars disappears again, then Mars will lose its atmosphere again.
Therefore, the road of transforming Mars is not easy, but we will try to do it whenever possible.
There is liquid water in the ground on Mars, which is very important for the transformation of Mars, and there are many solutions for the transformation of Mars, in addition to remelting the core of Mars, and transforming the atmosphere of Mars can also be through large mirrors.
In 2006, American physicist Robert McNarke proposed to increase the temperature of Mars by placing mirrors, so that Mars gradually melts ice and forms a greenhouse effect, which can help Mars regenerate its atmospheric environment.
Therefore, there are many ways to transform Mars, and we can also combine a variety of methods, so that Mars can be transformed faster and shorten the time required.
With the development of science and technology, our exploration and transformation of Mars will become faster, and it is possible that one day in the future, we will really move human footsteps towards the beautiful Red Planet.
However, the changes to the environment on Earth will eventually deteriorate the Earth's environment, and it is hoped that in the development of Mars, we can balance the relationship between scientific development and environmental protection, so that Mars can be restored to the way it was 4 billion years ago.