Atmosphere Of Mars Proposed To Be Seeded With Nanoparticles To Trigger Greenhouse Effect
(MENAFN- AzerNews)
By Alimat Aliyeva
American and European planetary scientists have proposed seeding
the atmosphere of Mars with a small amount of iron or aluminum
nanoparticles, whose interactions with the Sun's rays will generate
a greenhouse effect and make Mars more suitable for human life,
Azernews reports.
"Our calculations show that these nanoparticles will rise into
the upper atmosphere of Mars from the surface of the planet and
hover in these air layers for a long time. Due to the powerful
greenhouse effect, the ingress of even a small number of
nanoparticles into the Martian air will increase temperatures on
Mars by more than 30 degrees Celsius, which will trigger the
melting of its polar caps," the planetary scientists write.
This initiative was put forward by a group of European and
American planetary scientists led by Homan Mohseni, professor at
Northwestern University in Evanston, in a comprehensive study of
the prospects for colonization of Mars. One of the main obstacles
to this is that the atmosphere of Mars is extremely sparse, which
complicates the process of landing on its surface, and also
prevents the occurrence of a greenhouse effect that retains heat on
Mars.
Many planetary scientists suggest that this problem can be
solved if the polar caps of Mars are somehow melted. Professor
Mohseni and his colleagues discovered in the course of their
calculations that this can be achieved if the atmosphere of Mars is
seeded with rod-shaped nanoparticles made of iron or aluminum,
whose length is about 60 times their width.
Such nanostructures, according to the researchers, reflect light
and heat unusually well - they are 3-5 thousand times superior in
this respect to the strongest artificial fluorinated greenhouse
gases. Another advantage of these nanoparticles is that they can be
produced directly on the surface of Mars, extracting iron from
local rocks, which will allow for almost unlimited amounts of them
on the colonized planet.
In addition, calculations carried out by scientists show that in
order to warm up the atmosphere of Mars and start melting its ice
caps, it will be necessary to constantly emit a very small number
of nanoparticles into the air, about 30 liters per second. This is
theoretically achievable with the help of existing technologies for
the use of local resources (ISRU) and the production of
nanoparticles, which suggests that the adaptation of Mars to human
life will require significantly less resources and time than many
researchers assume, summed up Professor Mohseni and his
colleagues.
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