Beat the asteroid will make Mars suitable for life Bashny.Net

According to a study planetary scientists from the company Space Systems / Loral, published in the edition of Astrobiology Magazine, powerful asteroid hit Mars warmed up and made it suitable for life. According to scientists, this may explain how this cold, dry world once held liquid water.





2
On Mars, there is a giant crater formed 3, 7-4, 1 billion years ago. For example, the pool Argyre a crater about 1,140 kilometers, which was formed about 3, 8-3, 9 billion years ago by the fall of a comet or asteroid with a diameter of 100 to 200 km.

The time of formation of these huge craters roughly coincides with a period when there were many river basins of Mars. Scientists believe that the asteroid bombardment unleashed a huge amount of energy and raised the temperature of the surface of the Red Planet. For example, the fall of a celestial body in the pool Argyre nuclear explosion equivalent capacity to 100 billion megatons of TNT.



3
Warming has not been short-lived - it did warm the planet Mars for a sufficiently long period of time. Researchers believe that the impact of an asteroid or comet warmed Mars enough that the atmosphere was allocated a huge amount of greenhouse gases and water vapor. Computer models suggest that this could cause long-term greenhouse effect. For this event only one in the pool Argyre, while on Mars, there are other similar craters, for example, in the Hellas basin.

After the greenhouse effect gradually it passed Mars become too cold for the existence of liquid water on the surface. Of course, the Red Planet may have remained wet for a long time due to the river basins and lakes, but the exact duration of that period is unknown. Scientists believe that the warm period lasted for at least several centuries.

here: http: //rnd.cnews.ru/natur_science/news/line/index_science.shtml? 2012/05/30/491258



Source: