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Thermal escape of carbon from the early Martian atmosphere
Author(s) -
Tian Feng,
Kasting James F.,
Solomon Stanley C.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl036513
Subject(s) - noachian , atmosphere of mars , mars exploration program , astrobiology , martian , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric escape , hesperian , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , geology , materials science , physics , meteorology , metallurgy
Observations suggest that Mars was wet and warm during the late Noachian, which probably requires a dense CO 2 atmosphere. But would a dense CO 2 early Martian atmosphere have been stable under the strong EUV flux from the young Sun? Here we show that thermal escape of carbon was so efficient during the early Noachian, 4.1 billion years ago (Ga), that a CO 2 ‐dominated Martian atmosphere could not have been maintained, and Mars should have begun its life cold. By the mid to late Noachian, however, the solar EUV flux would have become weak enough to allow a dense CO 2 atmosphere to accumulate. Hence, a sustainable warm and wet period only appeared several hundred million years (Myrs) after Mars formed.