Triaxus?

[Jeff Erwin]

This article is awesome.

Anyway, though it's about Mars, it reminds me of Triaxus, because that planet is sort of undergoing a constant terraforming/unterraforming process.

I also figure Mr. Sutter might enjoy the pretty pictures.

[LazarX]

Jeff Erwin wrote:

This article is awesome.

Anyway, though it's about Mars, it reminds me of Triaxus, because that planet is sort of undergoing a constant terraforming/unterraforming process.

I also figure Mr. Sutter might enjoy the pretty pictures.

It's now the accepted belief that the main reason Mars became uninhabitable is the planets severe lack of a magnetic field, possibly because the core cooled down to a completely solid state, as opposed to remaining partially molten like Earth's much heavier core. Without a magnetic field, your atmosphere is essentially blown away by the solar wind. Something that will eventually repeat itself on Earth when our own core cools down in the distant future.

[Haladir]

Venus doesn't have a magnetic field to speak of, and it has an extremely dense atmosphere-- of carbon dioxide. Which is what makes up most of Mars' tenuous atmosphere.

What gets blown away by the solar wind is all of the water. Water vapor molecules become ionized by being blasted by the solar wind. Small planets' gravity is too weak to hold on to the hydrogen ions, and they escape to space.

No hydrogen, no water.