nauka: Climate of Mars

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The climate of Mars has been a topic of scientific curiosity for centuries, in part because it is the only terrestrial planet whose surface can be easily observed in detail from Earth using a telescope. Although Mars is smaller than Earth, with only one-tenth of Earth's mass, and is 50% farther from the Sun than Earth, its climate has important similarities with Earth's, such as the presence of polar ice caps, seasonal changes, and observable weather patterns. It has attracted sustained study from planetologists and climatologists. While Mars' climate has similarities to Earth's, including periodic ice ages, there are also important differences, such as much lower thermal inertia. Mars' atm…

Evidence: 32 • authority: 92

Active Mars: A Dynamic World.. Mars exhibits diverse surface changes at all latitudes and all seasons. Active processes include impact cratering, aeolian sand and dust transport, a variety of slope processes, changes in polar ices, and diverse effects of seasonal CO 2 frost. The extent of surface change has been surprising and indicates that the present climate is capable of reshaping the surface. Activity has important implications for the Amazonian history of Mars: understanding processes is a necessary step before we can understand their implications and variations over time.. Authors: Dundas CM, Becerra P, Byrne S, Chojnacki M, Daubar IJ, Diniega S, Hansen CJ, Herkenhoff KE, Landis ME,…

Evidence: 32 • authority: 72

The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect was first identified. In the late 19th century, scientists first argued that human emissions of greenhouse gases could change Earth's energy balance and climate. The existence of the greenhouse effect, while not named as such, was proposed as early as 1824 by Joseph Fourier. The argument and the evidence were further strengthened by Claude Pouillet in 1827 and 1838. In 1856 Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated that the warming effect of the sun is greater for air with water vapour than for dry air…

Evidence: 27 • authority: 72

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. This is made possible by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its ocean, which covers 70.8% of Earth's crust. The remaining 29.2% of Earth's crust is dry land, which is predominantly located within Earth's land hemisphere in the form of continental landmasses. Most of Earth's land is at least somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while large ice sheets at Earth's polar deserts retain more water than Earth's groundwater, lakes, rivers, and atmospheric water combined. Earth's crust consists of slo…

Evidence: 27 • authority: 72

Although very small amounts of liquid water may occur transiently on the surface of Mars, limited to traces of dissolved moisture from the atmosphere and thin films, large quantities of ice are present on and under the surface. Small amounts of water vapor are present in the atmosphere, and liquid water may be present under the surface. In addition, a large quantity of liquid water was likely present on the surface in the distant past. Currently, ice is mostly present in polar permafrost. More than 5 million km3 of ice have been detected at or near the surface of Mars, enough to cover the planet to a depth of 35 meters (115 ft). Even more ice might be locked away in the deep subsurface. The…

Evidence: 21 • authority: 72

The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of interest in astrobiology due to the planet's proximity and similarities to Earth. To date, no conclusive evidence of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface environment of Mars had liquid water and may have been habitable for microorganisms, but habitable conditions do not necessarily indicate life. Scientific investigations for potential life on Mars began in the 19th century and continue today with telescopes and robotic probes searching for water, chemical biosignatures in the soil and rocks at the planet's surface, and biomarker gases in the atmosph…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Sun is the star located at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation, with 10% at ultraviolet energies. It is the main source of energy for life on Earth. The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures and a central subject of astronomical research since antiquity. The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years. Its mean distance from Earth is about 1.496×108 kilometres or about 8 light-minutes. The distance between the Sun and the Earth was used to define a unit of l…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", for its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous atmosphere that is primarily carbon dioxide (CO2). At the average surface level the atmospheric pressure is a few thousandths of Earth's, atmospheric temperature ranges from −153 to 20 °C (−243 to 68 °F), and cosmic radiation is high. Mars retains some water, in the ground as well as thinly in the atmosphere, forming cirrus clouds, fog, frost, larger polar regions of permafrost and ice caps (with seasonal CO2 snow), but no bodies of liquid surface water. Its surface gravity is roughly a third of Earth's or double that of the Moon. Its…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. Climate change may refer to any time in Earth's history, but the term is now commonly used to describe contemporary climate change, often popularly referred to as global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution, the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun and radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy and the passage of the energy th…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The terraforming of Mars is a hypothetical procedure that would consist of a planetary engineering project or concurrent projects aspiring to transform Mars from a planet hostile to life to one that could sustainably host humans and other lifeforms free of protection or mediation. The process would involve the modification of the planet's extant climate, atmosphere, and surface through a variety of resource-intensive initiatives, as well as the installation of a novel ecological system or systems. Justifications for choosing Mars over other potential terraforming targets include the presence of water and a geological history that suggests it once harbored a dense atmosphere similar to Earth…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Antarctic science operations must account for climate change and extreme environmental events.. Extreme environmental events (EEEs) in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are occurring with growing frequency and severity, and will become more pronounced under continued global warming. Antarctic research relies on safely deploying personnel and equipment into remote locations. Preparing and undertaking science is, thus, dependent on conditions at sea and on ice. Here, we discuss impacts on scientific operations from EEEs and assess the vulnerability of research stations, the operability of airfields and non-prepared landing sites and reliability of vessel access. We show that each will face ch…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Prediction of Climate Change Impacts on the Suitable Habitat of <i>Hyphantria cunea</i> in China Based on Biomod2 Ensemble Models.. Global climate warming has intensified in recent years, with extreme weather events occurring more frequently and severely impacting ecosystems and social production. According to the "China Climate Change Blue Book (2023)," China's temperature rise rate exceeds the global average, with increasingly significant impacts on ecosystems. Hyphantria cunea , an invasive forest pest first discovered in China in 1979, has spread widely, causing serious damage to forestry and agriculture and posing a significant threat to China's ecological security. To addr…