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Old June 25th 03, 06:14 AM
David Knisely
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Default Query about Mars

Bert posted:

David you use "some" protection I see that as not a hell of a lot. Even
find dust particles that would burn up in earth's atmosphere could
easily come down and make it to the surface of Mars(yes)


No. Most micrometoroids and smaller meteoroids do *not* make it to the
surface of Mars. The atmosphere is thick enough to stop that. Larger
objects can make it down, but the lack of a continuuum of smaller impact
craters clearly shows the weak but noticable shielding effect that the
thin Martian atmosphere has.

Mars has only 1% of the earth's atmosphere.


Again, you have to clarify what you have said. The average atmospheric
*pressure* on Mars is about 7 millibars, which is about 0.69 percent of
the pressure on the Earth at sea level. The approximate mass of the
Martian atmosphere is about 4.1 x 10^16 kg. The mass of the Earth's
atmosphere is about 5.6 x 10^18 kg, so the Martian atmosphere is only
0.73 percent of the mass of the Earth's atmosphere. This is *less* than
one percent of the Earth's atmosphere.

Its surface is dust.


Its surface has *some* dust on it. There are quite large areas of solid
exposed bedrock as well, along with a huge population of small rocks and
larger nearly boulder-sized rocks. The surface is very rough and not
covered with the very thick and finely-gardened regolith that is found
on the moon. This clearly shows that the surface is being protected
from continual bombardment by small objects over much of its history,
which is in stark contrast to the surface of the moon

David because you challenge me on water on Mars I have now gone
from clams 50 feet down to worms.


Nope, I challenge you because you can't seem to get very many of the
facts right. You say that Mars has no atmosphere (which is just plain
wrong), and no magnetic field, which is inaccurate.

Your thinking is mush more intriguing than dust storms creating erosion.


Back to the childish insults again I see (sigh).

Mars is a dry planet


Compared to the Earth or Europa, it may be. However, it has a great
deal more water than bodies like Mercury or the moon have, and there are
*facts* to support this. You seem to be ingoring the facts again. Why
is that Bert?
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club:
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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