By analysing the air inside of these rocks, it's possible to learn things such as what isotopes or types of nitrogen were present a few billion years ago. There are two types of nitrogen in abundance in Earth's atmosphere that have different atomic weights – 14N and 15N – with 15N being slightly weightier of the two.
With no protection from a magnetic field, these two forms of nitrogen escape naturally from the atmosphere and into space. This occurs when the solar wind – particles sent out by the Sun – hits Earth's atmosphere and charges (ionizes) its particles. Without a magnetic field, this charging is more intense and the nitrogen escapes more rapidly.
Marty's group discovered that nitrogen isotopes trapped in rocks that are (supposedly) "3.5 billion" years old are there in just about the same ratio as today. This means researchers "can propose Earth had a magnetic field against escape of lighter elements to space" early in its history, he said. (Probably because it was CREATED that way from the beginning) Mars, by contrast, did not have a magnetic field and lost much of the lighter form of nitrogen over the years.
They also discovered that the partial pressure of nitrogen back then is about the same as it is today, which has implications for understanding how much carbon dioxide was in the early atmosphere. Nitrogen abundance in the atmosphere helps improve the insulating factor of carbon dioxide, which could have kept the Earth warm when the Sun was young.
The nitrogen wasn't quite enough to create this effect, however, so carbon dioxide may not be the solution. Still, the team's upper limit of partial pressure of carbon dioxide – 0.7 bars – is different from independent results based on carbon dioxide trapped in fossil soils. More research is needed to understand this, Marty said. His team's work was published in the journal Science in October." AstrobiologyMagazine
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God,
Hebrews 11:3
