Scientists Show What Exactly Went Wrong With Mars

Mars wasn't always a cold and barren world ruled by raging dust storms covering the entire planet. Instead, it was warm, had lakes of liquid water, and was possibly habitable for a short period in its history. This dramatic transition of the Red Planet is generally attributed to the loss of its magnetic field. A planet's magnetic field is a fundamental ingredient that decides the course of events there. It's an entity that can cause the difference between life and death.

The Earth's magnetosphere wraps Earth like a protective blanket. As the energetic solar wind strikes the magnetosphere, the magnetosphere forces it to flow around the planet instead of reaching the atmosphere or the surface, preventing the solar wind from stripping away Earth's atmosphere. Without it, Earth would be dry, dead, and barren, just like Mars. But if Mars once had a strong magnetic field, what went wrong with it? How did a warm planet become a cold, dry, and barren world? And most importantly, is this going to be the Earth's ultimate fate?

The eleventh episode of the Sunday Discovery Series answers these questions.

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Created By: Rishabh Nakra
Written By: Simran Buttar
Narrated By: Jeffrey Smith

The Secrets of the Universe on the internet:

[TheSecretsoftheUniverse]

Do you think humans can settle on Mars in the next couple of decades?

[ultrad-rex]

I think this video may be too optimistic about colonizing Mars. The chances of Mars being habitable are pretty tiny. Mars contains an extremely low temperature, high concentrations of toxic chemicals, lethal amounts of radiation, an insufficient amount of water, and an atmosphere that is 1% of Earth's. And the idea of terraformation, as I see in several comments, is being way ahead of today, as we're not even close to possessing the technology capable of doing so.

[Lutrian]

I think, ultimately Mars was just too small, and had too low of a mass to get it to squeeze out a good iron core, and what it did manage to squeeze out, just couldn't last.

[iamchillydogg]

Fun fact the Earth's core is a third larger than it should be because of the collision with Thera that created the Moon. The Earth absorbed it's core. We have an extra strong magnetic field because of that.

[mikemcfadden]

Seems like they need to include a rotating feather duster for the solar panels to periodically remove the dust.

[ZiggaRats]

So, our planet produces its own electricity? Interesting how we got duped into paying for it

[chasebh]

You'd think after having solar panels defeated by dust on practically every mission nasa would have put a brush on them by now

[iupetre]

The secret to the success of Earth's magnetic field lies in the large moon that orbits this planet. Neither Venus nor Mars have such a large moon to tug on the core like our moon. Without that action there will be no magnetic field to protect the planet. When looking for planets that can sustain life, we should narrow that search to planets that also have similarly large moons.

[neptune]

Am I the only one who feels bad for mars? Like, it’s magnetic field gave up on it.

[danieldipalma]

I can't believe that no one has put wiper blades on solar panels on these landing spacecraft.

[michaelbartlett]

How could Mars be our second home if it can't hold an atmosphere to allow tera-forming due to a lack of magnetic fields? Maybe you could live underground or in bubbles above, but what kind of existence is that?

[tobeywagner]

I think it's beautiful here on earth. Just spent a week at the beach. The water, air, and beach were all clean and beautiful! Earth is the best of the 9 planets! That's right Pluto is still a planet to me!

[kempmt]

Would having one or two true moons help it instead of the two pebbles that are currently orbiting the planet?

[ramachandra]

Excellent information as always thanks . Strange to think that Mars could have also been a flourishing planet if not for its magnetic field failing . Hope we have a successor to InSight to further delve into the planets mysteries .

[nathanielhosea]

According to present information, it Mars is not a good match for human habitation, but it has possibilities that other solar bodies may not. It may be worth finding out more about what humans can or cannot do to make it habitable.

[roahnosh]

"Future missions for human civilization."

Andromeda: I'm about to end this mans whole career

[theastrophile]

Great content as always. The videos of the Discovery Series are fascinating. I am very excited to get the news that we could reside on Mars!

[henryhawthorn]

I hypothesize that because of Mars’ relatively small size and low gravity compared to that of earth, the inner core and mantle convection that would normally attribute to the magnetic field, seized to exist.

[danielcarter]

Some theorize that we'd eventually have a better chance of creating livable conditions on Venus. If you can tame Venus, you'd probably have a more viable environment, but we don't have the technology as yet. Besides changing the composition of the Venetian atmosphere, you'd also have to reduce the atmospheric pressure.

[zackmhidig]

Very exciting information ℹ️ thanks for the video .