The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth;
by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Proverbs 3:19
"Look at the plume rising from the Martian atmosphere in a photo posted by PhysOrg. What caused it? The latest theory is that the sun is to blame. It sent out a coronal mass ejection (CME) that lofted dust and ice grains in the atmosphere to higher levels. Earth is shielded from “space weather” by its strong magnetic field.
The implications become obvious:
“A number of processes could be responsible, but if these plumes are indeed driven by space-weather disturbances, this adds an important angle to our understanding of how Mars may have lost much of its atmosphere in the past, changing from a warm,
wet world and becoming the cold, dry, dusty place it is today,”
says Dmitri Titov, Mars Express project scientist.
Space weather dims hopes for life on other planets and moons in our solar system.
Nola Taylor Redd writes for Live Science,
“Alien Life? Radiation May Erase Mars, Europa Fossils.” It’s not just that life would have a harder time emerging on an unprotected world; even if it did, she argues, we might never know. The hunt for signs of alien life in the solar system may be much tougher than researchers had thought, thanks to the damaging effects of radiation. Two separate studies suggest that galactic radiation would quickly degrade biological material on the surface of Mars and Jupiter’s ocean-harboring moon Europa, two of the prime targets in the search for past or present extraterrestrial life."
Earth’s biological material (both living and departed) would quickly degrade just as easily, were it
nor for our protective atmosphere that shields the biosphere from high-energy galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Most amino acids would degrade in 20 million years, a very brief time for hunters looking for ancient Martian life. But when wet, the materials degrade faster. “Water accelerated the degradation of the biomarkers, destroying some in as few as 500,000 years and all within 10 million years.” Instruments would have to be able to dig deeper than a meter, scientists estimate, to find evidence of life on Mars. Europa faces comparable radiation. Instruments might have to dig a dozen meters down to get below the decay zone." CEH
