MARS NEEDS OCEANS to support life - and so do exoplanets

theregister.co.uk ^ | 21 Jul 2014 | By Brid-Aine Parnell,

[BenLurkin]

Just being in the Goldilocks zone doesn't mean there'll be anyone to eat the porridge ...

“We know that many planets are completely uninhabitable because they are either too close or too far from their sun. A planet’s habitable zone is based on its distance from the sun and temperatures at which it is possible for the planet to have liquid water,” said David Stevens, from the university's school of mathematics.

“But until now, most habitability models have neglected the impact of oceans on climate. Oceans have an immense capacity to control climate. They are beneficial because they cause the surface temperature to respond very slowly to seasonal changes in solar heating. And they help ensure that temperature swings across a planet are kept to tolerable levels.”

“Mars for example is in the sun’s habitable zone, but it has no oceans – causing air temperatures to swing over a range of 100°C...."

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Looks like Goldilocks can't get away with being just a Nine.

She has to be a Perfect Ten.

[henkster]

Well duh!

[cripplecreek]

“Mars for example is in the sun’s habitable zone, but it has no oceans – causing air temperatures to swing over a range of 100°C...."

Actually that temperature swing is mostly the result of a very thin atmosphere. Oceans do help hold and transport heat around a planet but they're hardly the only mechanism that makes a planet warm.

[ArtDodger]

And how do we know there isn’t a sizable ocean of water under the surface?

[elcid1970]

Mars needs oceans? I thought Mars needs women!

;^)

[cripplecreek]

Maybe lots of water but in the form of global swamps and lakes

[GeronL]

Mars doesn’t even have enough air pressure to support human life.

[dfwgator]

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.

[cripplecreek]

Obviously.

[HenpeckedCon]

Mars could have Earth’s air pressure and it wouldn’t make any differnence because any life would fry from the radiation.

[GeronL]

A thicker atmosphere of some kind would help I would think, and one with a (bit) thicker atmosphere and an ocean would be best probably.

[HenpeckedCon]

Without a magnetic field Mars can’t have an atmosphere or oceans like Earth. It’s a dead planet.

[rarestia]

In fact, it’s cold as Hell.

[uglybiker]

And all these years I was told Mars needs women.

[JimSEA]

Rocky Super Earths: Plate Tectonics and Habitability is a You Tube Video of a lecture on the need for volcanics and accompanying plate tectonics to supply a planet with the necessary atmosphere, magnetics and sustainable oceans to support life. It's pretty interesting even though the lecturer is a better thinker than she is a speaker. Mars had a pretty active volcanic stage but it's long past and the atmosphere is a remnant.

[MaxMax]

Not sure about Women, but there is a whole party of boobs we could send. (D)

[blueplum]

I was watching a program the other day that scenario’d an ice asteroid hitting the moon, causing an accretion ring around the Earth that would cause it rain 400 years. So theoretically, maybe we could tow an ice asteroid to Mars orbit and explode it, doing the same thing and creating oceans on Mars. But then again,would the increased drag of Martian oceans on it’s orbit, affect the Earth in some way?