Willy Swenson
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event 18
April 7th, 2021
“What Happened to Mars’s Water? It Is Still Trapped There: New Data Challenges the Long-Held Theory That All of Mars’s Water Escaped into Space.” ScienceDaily, 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210316132106.htm. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.
There is a new theory emerging out of the scientific community in regards to the history of water on the planet Mars. For years, the theory has been that Mars was covered in water, roughly the same amount of water as the Atlantic Ocean, but because of Mars’ low gravity, the water was lost into the atmosphere and space. However, a team of scientists from Caltech and JPL have proposed a new theory that challenges this assertion, “Atmospheric escape clearly had a role in water loss, but findings from the last decade of Mars missions have pointed to the fact that there was this huge reservoir of ancient hydrated minerals whose formation certainly decreased water availability over time,” (Ehlmann). The team has found data to support the theory that water loss occurred roughly 3 billion years ago because water had been covered by Mars’ inactive crust.
On our planet, our crust constantly is moving and recycling minerals (and thereby water) because of the active tectonic plates’ mechanisms, however Mars does not have active tectonics. So, once the crust dries over water or the water is turned into minerals, there is no chance for it to be recycled through volcanic activity, like on Earth. This is a very interesting theory that has been proposed because it suggests that Mars has a very mineral rich composition. Although, I do not know much about how this will help us humans, I hope that scientists, such as Elon Musk, will use this information to help the human race progress on our journey to explore space.
Overall, I thought this was a very interesting read because I’ve always been interested in Mars. Since being a little boy thinking there were aliens living on the red planet to a senior in high school imagining the real possibility of visiting the planet in my life time, I think that we keep pushing to discover more and more about what lies beyond our own atmosphere.
Nate Kim
ReplyDelete4/16/21
AP Biology
Current Event 19
Swenson, Willy. “Mars’” Blogspot.com, 16 April. 2021, https://bronxvilleapbiology.blogspot.com/2021/04/mars.html
“What Happened to Mars’s Water? It Is Still Trapped There: New Data Challenges the Long-Held Theory That All of Mars’s Water Escaped into Space.” ScienceDaily, 2021, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210316132106.htm. Accessed 8 Apr. 2021.
Willy’s analysis of “What Happened to Mars’s Water? It Is Still Trapped There: New Data Challenges the Long-Held Theory That All of Mars’s Water Escaped into Space” is a perfect example of analysis that gives the reader a full understanding of the article being analyzed. Willy does a great job of integrating his own commentary with the facts from the article. The analysis has great flow where Willy basically seamlessly integrates facts and information with the summary of the article. I also liked that he was able to explain some technical terms. His explanation of atmospheric escape was clear and articulate.
Although I think Willy’s review was top-notch, I believe there are some areas for improvement. Willy uses sophisticated vocabulary that could make his writing a little hard to understand for readers that are not well-versed in the field of biology or science in general. This is easily remedied by just defining more terms or using simpler language. While WIlly did a great job explaining some terms, I feel as though others were overlooked and not touched on. These are the terms that could potentially be confusing to readers. Additionally, I wish Willy went into more detail as to what these new findings mean for the future of space exploration. Are these ancient minerals harvestable? Are they valuable? Willy’s topic is so interesting that I mind myself lost in new questions without any answers.
In conclusion, Willy’s analysis is intriguing and thought provoking. I thank Willy for bringing this topic to my attention because it has opened my eyes to a new and interesting field to look into. From his writing, it is clear that Willy is an expert in this field and his passion for this field is also apparent in the writing. I learned about atmospheric escape, the possibility of minerals on Mars, and how we might obtain these minerals in the future. I will definitely look into minerals on Mars in the future.