{"id":2994,"date":"2025-02-28T15:58:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T15:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=2994"},"modified":"2025-02-28T15:58:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T15:58:54","slug":"mars-time-machine-researchers-create-virtual-model-to-decode-red-planets-climate-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2994\/mars-time-machine-researchers-create-virtual-model-to-decode-red-planets-climate-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars time machine: researchers create virtual model to decode Red Planet\u2019s climate evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers are creating advanced simulations that will provide a deeper understanding of Mars\u2019s climatic history and help to determine whether it was once able to sustain life.<\/p>\n

By<\/em> Jonathan O\u2019Callaghan<\/p>\n

An international team of researchers is developing a model of Mars\u2019s evolution that could unlock some of its long-held secrets, including whether it once harboured life.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Forget, a space scientist from the Pierre Simon Laplace Institute in France, is the man looking for those answers. He is not a time traveller, but is hoping to do the next best thing.<\/p>\n

His team of researchers, gathered under the name \u201cMars through time\u201d and supported by EU funding, is trying to piece together different periods of the planet\u2019s history. The aim is to answer the question that has long perplexed scientists: was Mars once habitable?<\/p>\n

\u201cMars was a place where life could have emerged, so it\u2019s very fascinating,\u201d said Forget, the principal investigator of Mars through time.<\/p>\n

The work of his team is being coordinated at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris. The six-year initiative, ending in November 2025, aims to shed light on the possible timeframes during which Mars might have been warm and wet, covered in glaciers, and maybe even suitable for life.<\/p>\n

Previous missions to Mars have given a tentative look into its history, but have not shown what the planet was actually like. Robotic exploration has revealed that Mars was not always the desert planet it is today. It has witnessed eras conducive to rivers and lakes, as well as ice ages.<\/p>\n

Yet we still know little about the climatic processes that have shaped its surface. This is where Forget\u2019s team comes in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to invent a new model, to build a virtual planet that evolves through time,\u201d said Forget. \u201cIt\u2019s a super ambitious project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work to develop this model has been underway since 2019, and proved more difficult to develop than initially thought \u2013 in part because of the large amount of computing power required. But the end is in sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I know it\u2019s possible,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m convinced that soon we will have a very nice tool available to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means we may soon be able to use this virtual time machine to transport ourselves to different periods of Martian history and understand exactly what happened to the planet and when.<\/p>\n

A brief history of time<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like Earth, Mars was born at the dawn of our solar system, 4.5 billion years ago. It is about half the size of our own planet and is farther from the Sun than we are. At this distance, it receives less solar radiation than Earth does.<\/p>\n

However, evidence increasingly suggests that early in its life, Mars was a warm and wet planet much like our own.<\/p>\n

Geological and mineralogical evidence shows that Mars once possessed a thicker atmosphere than the planet has today. Even more intriguingly, we can also see remnants of ancient lakes and seas on its surface.<\/p>\n

Two of these are currently being explored by the NASA rovers Curiosity and Perseverance.<\/p>\n

At some point 3 to 4 billion years ago, Mars lost its atmosphere for reasons not yet fully understood, and with it, the temperate conditions that allowed liquid water to exist on its surface.<\/p>\n

Today the planet is barren and dry, except for water thought to be trapped under its surface, and ice that we can see frozen at its poles.<\/p>\n

When exactly the planet was warm and wet is still an open question.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not understand the climate process that allowed that,\u201d said Forget, and points out a crucial issue to explore. \u201cLiquid water means there was a possibility of the emergence of life at the same time life emerged on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mars is also thought to have gone through periods of vast glaciation, carving valleys on its surface, when the atmosphere temporarily disappeared.<\/p>\n

Forget\u2019s model is hoping to give insight into when these periods occurred. It will be able to do that with a precision unlike any previous Mars climate models. The current models provide just a snapshot of the climate at any given moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to have a new model that can simulate the evolution of Mars for thousands or millions of years,\u201d said Forget. \u201cWhen we do that, we can simulate the evolution of glaciers and lakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atmospheric changes<\/strong><\/p>\n

To develop the model, Forget and his team take known information about Mars and use powerful computers to simulate the conditions on its surface that this might have led to.<\/p>\n

For example, one known major changing factor on Mars has been its obliquity, the tilt of the planet as it orbits the Sun.<\/p>\n

Currently, it is about 25 degrees, similar to Earth, but it has varied throughout its history from almost zero degrees to more than 60 degrees, said Forget. This has caused large swings in the amount of heat on Mars\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

The thickness and composition of the Martian atmosphere over time is also an open question. Today the planet\u2019s atmosphere is about 1% of the Earth\u2019s volume, with 95% of it made up of CO2<\/sub>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to think that if you add enough CO2<\/sub>, you will have a warm climate,\u201d said Forget. \u201cBut that is not sufficient. There is something else that allowed a warm climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current thinking is that ancient volcanism on Mars expelled a considerable amount of hydrogen into the atmosphere, which, combined with CO2<\/sub>, could make a sufficient greenhouse effect. \u201cBut it\u2019s very speculative. There is a mystery there,\u201d Forget points out.<\/p>\n

Large impacts, like collisions with asteroids or comets, could also have influenced Mars\u2019s climate. \u201cWith our tools, we can model that,\u201d said Forget. Evidence of those impacts is visible today as craters on the planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Faces of Mars<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Mars is barren today, it has shown many faces in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough geological records that we can interpret with models, we explore \u201850 different planets\u2019 \u2013 an icy planet covered with glaciers, a planet with an atmosphere completely frozen at the poles, and a planet with no atmosphere,\u201d said Forget.<\/p>\n

That makes this research applicable not just to Mars, but to planets orbiting other stars too, with the underlying idea of looking for habitable environments beyond our solar system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe limit of habitability is a big topic,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can explore what it takes for a planet like Earth to have liquid water on its surface. We want to define where water will stabilise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding Mars will give us an opportunity to gain such knowledge.<\/p>\n

Research in this article was funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The views of the interviewees don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. <\/em><\/p>\n

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