[cynicom]

To have been awash with water, Mars had to have two things, the needed temperature range and sufficient atmosphere.

[ngc6656]

To have been awash with water, Mars had to have two things, the needed temperature range and sufficient atmosphere.

It is hard to imagine Mars had bodies of water approaching the size of Earth's oceans. Thinking regionally, one can imagine the formation of temporary streams, ponds, lakes, perhaps even small seas as comets of various sizes collided with Mars.

[patton]

Which blows this rubbish article right out of the water, if you will pardon the pun.

The author starts with the wrong question - where did the water come from?

Ask first, where did it go?

[Qwinn]

"To have been awash with water, Mars had to have two things, the needed temperature range and sufficient atmosphere."

And the problem with sufficient atmosphere is that Mars is not large enough to have enough gravity to hold a respectable atmosphere in place. Which, to me, points to the idea that Mars was once larger than it is now. That would seem rather hard to explain, but here's my science-fiction crack at it.

There was an intelligent civilization on Mars long ago. Like Earth, it had a Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere, but in a different ratio and with other elements as well. They reached a level of science approaching ours, including the technology to initiate a nuclear fission reaction.

Those familiar with the development of nuclear technology may be aware that the guys who initially began a reaction at Trinity had some major cojones. See, there was a sizable number of scientists at the time who believed that a nuclear reaction in our atmosphere would be self-sustaining, and that it would use our atmosphere as fuel. Thank God it didn't happen... but what if that was only due to the particular makeup and percentages of the elements of our atmosphere? What if a different ratio of nitrogen to oxygen -would- trigger such a chain reaction, or a third element could provide a catalyst to keep the reaction going?

So. They set off a nuke. It began a chain reaction in their atmosphere. The primary element, nitrogen, fused. A whole -hell- of a lot of the mass of the planet was blown off in the reaction, accounting for it's smaller size and inability to hold an atmosphere now.

Additional: do you know what you get when you fuse two nitrogen atoms together? You get silicon. That would be... sand. Mars has a whole lot of sand.

Basically, what I'm getting at is that if the scientists pre-Trinity had been right about a nuclear reaction in the atmosphere setting off a chain reaction that would fuse the nitrogen in our atmosphere, Earth would look very very similar to Mars a million years from now.

It's a theory I play with when I think about writing my Great American Science Fiction Novel :)

Qwinn