Curiosity rover's Mars landing site was once covered with fast-moving water, NASA says

Originally posted by pavil

Originally posted by BalderAsir
so the question is, where'd it all go? How does a planet go from having running water, long enough to cause erosion to nothing?

Same as it's atmosphere.... ripped away bit by bit by the solar wind due to lack of a real magnetic field.

The problem I have with this explanation is in the comparison with the plant Venus. Venus has no magnetic field yet its atmosphere is over 90 times that of Earth's. I believe that our understanding of the nature of these planetary environments is lacking to say the least.

Having said that I feel BalderAsir's question is valid. What happened to the planets Mars and Venus and when did these events occur?

Originally posted by DiabolusFireDragon
If it is, then I'm ignorant on whether the period of liquid water would have been long enough for significant life to develop.

I wouldn't call yourself ignorant because you don't know that. Nobody knows it. A lot of people just assume that if you have water and toss a lot of chemicals around in it for a while somehow life will magically form in it. That has never, ever been proven.

how do they know it was water ? there is liquid propane on titan

Originally posted by Procession101

Originally posted by BalderAsir
so the question is, where'd it all go? How does a planet go from having running water, long enough to cause erosion to nothing?

A lot of people I know believe that it was a global cataclysm that caused Mars to be a "dead planet". If you look at the picture below you'll notice a huge impact scar on or around the equator. Many people believe that something must have collided or hit Mars and caused it to lose it's atmosphere and turned it into the bone dry rock it is today.

Mars Scar

edit on 28-9-2012 by Procession101 because: (no reason given)

There is also another theory, which I find very entertaining, that the scar on Mars, Valles Marineris, is the result of a near miss rather than a collision.

As the theory goes the scar is the result of an electrical interaction between two bodies, Venus being the other body, which caused the complete desruction of all life on Mars and the stripping away of most of its atmosphere and surface water. "John Carter", take a back seat to a real entertaining movie idea, "Worlds in Collision".

reply to post by Devino

There is also another theory, which I find very entertaining, that the scar on Mars, Valles Marineris, is the result of a near miss rather than a collision.

The most reasonable theory is that it marks the separation of rudimentary tectonic plates.

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
how do they know it was water ? there is liquid propane on titan

Well, technically Ethane and Methane mainly.