If NASA is now finding that the planet Mars, was in fact, once a wet planet...?

Question

Does this suggest that perhaps the sun has already been in its Red Giant stage?

And the alternating cyclical changes of both Mars and Earth, do these changes reflect the stages of the Sun's life?

Perhaps the dinosaurs died off due to the Red Giant?

Assuming of course, that the Sun even goes thru the same stages as seen in others stars. KNowing in hand that just because these may have been witnessed with other stars, doesn't absolutely mean that our own star will assume these changes.

Answer 1

No, there is no basis for that claim. The Sun has not undergone a red giant phase in its past, because a main sequence star like the Sun only becomes a red giant after it exhausts its hydrogen, which our star is still happily fusing into helium. Mars lost its liquid moisture because it became colder. Mars lost its atmosphere to the solar wind due to having too small a mass to retain the atmosphere via gravity as the Earth does. Without an atmosphere as dense as the Earth's, the greenhouse effect on Mars was greatly reduced, preventing it from retaining the Sun's warmth. Mars became cold and its water cycle was terminated.

Answer 2

No, if the sun went red giant, it would have fried the Earth, and we wouldn't be here today. Also red giant indicates that the star is dying, and after the red giant phase the sun will become a white dwarf.
There is no good answer for what happened to the water on Mars. There are two view points:
1. Mars was warmer and wetter (lakes, oceans) with a thicker atmosphere.
2. Mars was always cold, but sometimes water flowed when ice was melted. This also needs a thicker atmosphere.

The atmosphere today is too thin for water too flow. This is due to a lack of CO2 (if only we could pump our greenhouse gasses there). The CO2 would have become a different compound (carbonate) over time, and was not replenished by volcanoes or other processes.

Answer 3

Mars may have had a thicker atmosphere in the past. That is why it had water. Since Mars doesn't have much of a magnetic field, it has little protection from Solar Storms (unlike Earth). The water and atmosphere of Mars probably was lost over the years as the outer layers were blown off by magnetic storms.

If the Sun had undergone a red giant phase, then what happened to the Earth? We are closer.

Answer 4

A star cannot shrink from a red giant stage to a normal stage. Theory-Mars, and Venus once had water but at the time the dinasaurs died out the asteroid came from a chain of asteroids that bombarded the surfaces of mars and venus
Mars- an asteroid Mostly Iron mixed with mars' atmosphere causing rust. the atmosphere was destroyed.
And pieces of the Asteroid broke into Phobos and Diemos
Venus-Same senario but venus was in development the asteroid through sulphur into the atmosphere and it hasn't came down because it hardened there and jet stream whips it back up . The asteroid became mercury.

Answer 5

No. You are way off base.

Stars don't cycle in and out of red giant phase. Going Red Giant means it is running out of fuel (Hydrogen). It doesn't suddenly find quadrillions of tons of Hydrogen to come back out of red giant phase. It's a one shot deal.

Mars used to have water, this could indicate something about the sun's changes of the past few billion years, but not red giantism.

Answer 6

Very early studies of Mars at the beginning of the 20th century seemed to indicate a series of cannals which spread over the surface of the planet in a web like pattern. This caught the imagination of science fiction writers like Percival Lewis. The popular idea at the time was that there was not just water, but an entire civilization which died when all the water evaporated for unknown reasons. The canal system was supposed to be the last attempt the martians made to irrigate the planet. When the US and the USSR began competing for world attention, the Americans cast their "cold war" fears into science fiction scenarios. The martians did not die, and instead invaded America to steal its natural resources. H.G. Well's "war of the worlds" is the most popular in a never ending series of "space invader" novels.

After the Americans had beat the Russians to the moon, serious research on the planet Mars began. Orbiting probe satelites revealed there were no actual canals on the surface of the planet. It is now known these structures were actually caused by an optical fault in early telescopes. What the satelites did reveal were what appeared to be dry river channels and even deltas in some regions. There was absolutly no liquid water to be seen, but the dry surface deposits intrigued American scientists. The Viking satellite actually landed on the martian surface. No water was found and tests for any life were inconclusive.

Not having to compete with the Russians meant that American space exploration was seriously underfunded after the collapse of the Soviet union in the late 20th century. However, due to ingenious engineering, satellites continued to be built on much smaller budgets. The last pair included mobile robots which found further evidence of water in the form of iron mineral deposits which only form in the presence of water. Additional evidence was the discovery of sedimentary layers of mud like deposits, further suggesting Mars once had liquid water on its surface.

It is now generally acknowledged that Mars once was far warmer, had a dense atmosphere and liquid water on its surface. This was about 4 billion years ago, just as life began evolving on earth. Earth is larger than Mars however, and the increased gravity meant water and oxygen were more strongly attracted to earth's surface. What actually helped the most was the fact Earth had (and still has) a liquid iron core. It is the size of the moon and its rotation generates an intense magnetic field around the planet. This field then acts as a shield to deflect highly charged solar particles. This stream is known as the solar "wind". The Earth's field condences at each pole, and this high magnetic flux interacts with the solar wind, generating light.

Satelites have revealed Mars has an iron core, but it has solidified and the planet no longer has a magnetic field. The solar wind appears to have helped to strip away most of the planet's atmosphere and liquid water. Because Mars is smaller than earth as well, decreased gravity helped to accelerate this process. The loss of its atmosphere caused the surface temperature of Mars to fall drastically to an average of about 30 below zero. The polar regions are cold enough to solidify carbon dioxide; most of the ice cap on Mars is in fact carbon dioxide.

The most recient Martian discoveries involve satelite photos of the surface taken about a year apart. One clearly shows what appears to have been a sudden eruption of some liquid from the side of a crater. The liquid has evaporated, but there are a number of channels running down the crater side. One theory is that subsurface water exists on Mars and and erosion of the wall exposed an ice deposit. It then melted rapidly in the low pressure of the Martian atmosphere and soon evaporated.

Of course the biggest question is whether there is any life on Mars. One theory is that it may not be based on water, but rather on hydrogen peroxide. This is a very reactive chemical on earth, but may be inert enough under Mar's low temperature to support some sort of life. Most importantly, this substance is liquid at sub-zero temperatures. The Viking lander mixed water with Martian "soil" and then analyzed the sample for biochemical substances. It is theorized that ordinary water killed any peroxide based life. Future Mars missions might include peroxide chemical tests.

BTW: once the sun undergoes its "red giant" phase it will expand beyond the orbit of Mars. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars will be vaporized. Jupiter might be blown away into space by the solar wind. Here it will form a nebulous ring of gas, which might react with the other gas giants like Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These planets will absorb the gas, increase in size and Saturn may even become a small star. The sun will collapse into a white dwarf or neutron star and maybe 10 billion years from now, the solar system will consist of a binary system. A small star formed from Saturn will orbit a white dwarf formed from the sun.