2007-06-25 02:03:16 · 7 answers · asked by JeckJeck 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Mars has a thin atmosphere consisting, mainly, of carbon dioxide. However it has no magnetic field and so most of it's atmosphere has been stripped away by solar radiation.
2007-06-25 02:08:55 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mars is a fairly small world, and it has little or no magnetic field - meaning, it's core has solidified. Without the field, solar radiation was free to slowly knock it's atmospheric particles away from Mars. If Mars was bigger, giving it a stronger gravity field, this probably wouldn't have happened.
2007-06-25 03:56:50 · answer #2 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mars hasn't lost *all* of its atmosphere. There's good evidence that in the far distant past it was much denser, but Mars has virtually no magnetic field. Without that, radiation from the sun (..the 'solar wind'..) has swept most of it away. The solar wind coming in to Earth is stronger than at Mars, but our magnetic field has shielded us from it and so Earth's atmosphere remains.
2007-06-25 03:21:42 · answer #3 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mars has a very thin atmosphere made up of mostly carbon dioxide. Its atmosphere is very thin because it does not have a magnetic field to protect it from solar wind.
2007-06-25 06:30:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It evidently had an atmosphere, as well as water. But, it has no magnetosphere to deflect solar winds and mass ejections, and its mass is not great enough to effectively retain either. Over time, it appears to have lost most of both to the frozen wastes of space.
2007-06-25 02:10:46 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yea I have Sean pictures of a sand storm that covered much of the area we wanted to look at. so it has an atmosphere but possible very little oxygen. They need green plants that could live at the very cold temperatures.
2007-06-25 04:53:10 · answer #6 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I was told by people believing in the power of scientific models that you never should ask "why". I was told that you should ask "how". So you can ask questions in a way that sounds less hurting to those people. I also was told that people who ask "why" are either dumb or narrow minded.
But in my opinion it's o.k. to ask "why". It's a sign of open-mindedness and a thirst for learning when you ask "why".
After this preamble I come to the question. Mars still has an atmosphere. But it is only about 0.6 to 1% of what we have here on earth. The question if Mars had a more dense atmosphere in the past and by what process it was lost is not answered by facts.
2007-06-25 02:16:53 · answer #7 · answered by Ernst S 5 · 0⤊ 5⤋