Photo: Artist’s impression of a habitable Mars. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
A new scientific paper under the title 'How to create an artificial magnetosphere for Mars' has been published by Cornell University and explains how Mars could be transformed into a habitable planet.
For well over a century, people have pondered the concept that the red planet could be a second home for humans. However, there are obvious serious difficulties standing in our way. Most important of these is the fact that Mars does not have a magnetic field which in turn means that Mars has no defence against the solar winds that would strip the planet of any liveable atmosphere.
The idea that Mars could have an atmosphere artificially built where humans could breathe, is in itself not that far-fetched. Mars is known to have huge amounts of ice that through electrolysis or similar procedures, could create an atmosphere similar to Earth's over time. This doesn't though avoid the problem that this new atmosphere would be stripped away by the solar winds.
The new paper suggests that a process known as terraforming could take place and a magnetic field could be created for Mars which would protect any newly created artificial atmosphere.
The Earth's magnetic field is created by its core made of iron which spins and creates our defences, while the core of Mars is smaller and cooler and produces no such defence. The paper in question suggests instead that one of Mars's moons, Phobos, could have particles ionised from its surface and, by accelerating them, that would create a plasma torus that would act as a shield. While the ins and outs of this may at present be a matter of science-fiction, there is no saying what may be developed in the decades and centuries ahead.
The paper emerges at roughly the same time as another new paper suggests that a huge number of electrolysis machines on the surface of Earth's Moon could, over time, extract enough oxygen to make our lunar orbiter habitable. While fascinating, it appears that neither of these potential plans are likely to see real fruition in the lifetime of anyone living today.
[Based on reporting by: science alert]
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