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(meteorobs) Mars and Meteors





   The Sky & Telescope News section of their website has an interesting
explanation of why Mars is red. Called "Rusting Mars Without Water" by
David Tytell, it attributes the red of Mars to oxidation from billions 
of years of ordinary chondritic meteorite impacts. It mentions that the
oxidation process doesn't need water if "meteoritic iron releases an electron 
when hit with ultraviolet radiation. If that electron is captured by oxygen 
in the Martian atmosphere before it can return to its source, the iron
atom becomes oxidized, or rusted. And it happens without water". This sounds
possible, given that Mars has no plate tectoics, but wouldn't the common
meteors, which are from comets, provide the water for oxidation too? Anyway,
it is an interesting theory. The The Sky & Telescope article url is:
http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1039_1.asp


GWG
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