Research
The Mars as the Parent Body of CI Carbonaceous Chondrites Hypothesis Re-Examined in the Light of New Data
It had been proposed that the parent body for the CI carbonaceous was the planet Mars. New data strongly supports this hypothesis. The recovery of CI-like material from the asteroid Ryugu, which orbits near Mars has confirmed the importance of CI material as a source of water for the terrestrial planets. The oxygen isotope makeup of the CI is now seen to overlap the distribution of data from the aqueously altered portions of recognized MMs (Mars Meteorites). The CI consist of completely aqueous altered ferro-magnesian silicates, carbonates and sulfates. The physical conditions that produced these materials match conditions on Early Mars, as inferred from portions of recognized ancient Mars meteorites ALH84001 and NWA 7533. Noble and Nitrogen gas isotopes match early Mars atmosphere, especially in N, Kr, Xe, and Ar isotopes with a Mars early atmosphere being composed of Chondritic Xe and Kr. The CI, despite early aqueous alteration, appear to have been, like Chassigny, preserved in a hot dry environment and have preserved entrapped Early Mars atmosphere. The CI can thus be considered to be aqueously altered remnants of a late accretion veneer that largely experienced no melt processing. Portions of this lithology have been thermally altered and formed the CY group. This Mars -CI hypothesis can be tested by chronologies of thermal alteration of the CYs .The CI are rich in organic matter, indicating that Early Mars was warm, wet, and rich in the chemical precursors of life and therefore emulated conditions that fostered life on Early Earth.
The New Mars Synthesis : Circumstantial Evidence of a Past Persistent Gaia on the Red Planet
- Based on a large scale synthesis of data, Mars can be understood to be a planet with a flourishing, Gaia-type, biosphere in the past, where life modified its environment from an early epoch so that it became the home of a massive Earth- like biosphere, before an anomalous mass extinction event, reduced it to its present state with only a weak, residual biosphere. Such a possibility is strongly suggested by circumstantial evidence gathered form a variety of sources. The Mars crate ring rate, is shown to be much higher than Lunar leading to the average surface age in the Northern Hemisphere to be approximately 1/2 billion years or less. This is proven by the average age of younger Mars meteorites, the Nakhlites and Shergottites, of less than 1 Billion years. The young surface ages make signs of liquid water on Mars more recent and indicate that the liquid water epoch on Mars lasted for most of Mars geologic history. This requires a high pressure CO2 greenhouse in the presence of large amounts of ferrous silicates, requiring, in turn, a high oxygen level atmosphere to provide geochemical stability. This results in a red Mars due to large amounts of Hematite in the soil and few carbonates. This oxygenated atmosphere, in turn, requires massive photosynthesis, as occurs on Earth, since UV photolysis of water is self-limiting whereas photosynthesis is self-amplifying by formation of an ozone layer to protect plant life. Mars thus became very Earthlike in environment, with a mixed CO2 and CH4 greenhouse produced by a high pressure oxygen rich atmosphere, until some cataclysm ended all but a present residual biosphere.
The Cydonian Hypothesis in the Context of New Mars Data
In a previous article the Cydonian Hypothesis was proposed, where it was hypothesized that what appeared to be strange landforms seen in orbital Mars Viking imagery, were, in fact, eroded archeology from an extinct, stone-age or early bronze-age, humanoid culture indigenous to Mars. It was the simplest hypothesis that could be formed, for the interpretation of the objects as artifacts, based on the data then available. Based on estimates of the ages of the terrains where these objects were found on Mars, approximately 1/2 billion years old, such a hypothetical humanoid culture was considered to be a completely independent biological development on our own culture on Earth. This culture, termed the Cydonians, was hypothesized to have developed and existed in a past period of Earth-like conditions on Mars. Analysis of new imagery, from recent probes, obtained at Cydonia Mensa and Galaxias Chaos, strongly supports the original Cydonian Hypothesis. Given the apparent catastrophic climate change on Mars from its past Earth-like state and Fermi’s Paradox: the unexpected silence of the cosmic neighborhood, it is recommended that a human Mars mission to these two sites be mounted immediately by the ISS (International Space Station) consortium to gain knowledge of this Cydonian Culture and the reasons for its demise.
