For years, scientists have tried to work out how to heat up Mars but the proposed technologies have been expensive and hard to implement.<\/p>\n
Now, scientists at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University in Illinois, and the University of Central Florida say they could use engineered particles made from iron and aluminium that lies on the planet\u2019s surface to reflect light and trap escaping heat.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
It\u2019s the same process that humans have accidentally employed here on Earth; releasing material into the atmosphere to enhance Mars\u2019 natural greenhouse effect and trap solar heat at the surface.<\/p>\n
Instead of CO2 and methane, however, the researchers say \u201cconductive nanorods\u201d \u2013 \u201cnot much smaller than commercially available glitter\u201d could do the job.<\/p>\n
That means materials wouldn\u2019t need to be brought to Mars, making the operation more feasible.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Mars, warming the planet is a necessary [\u2026] first step [to making it habitable]. Previous concepts have focused on releasing greenhouse gases, but these require large amounts of resources that are scarce on Mars,\u201d said University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite, who helped lead the study published this week in the journal Science Advances.<\/p>\n
Once \u201clifted\u201d into the atmosphere, the Mars glitter would be much slower to settle than standard Mars dust, meaning it would stay up there for a long time, according to the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d still need millions of tons [of \u2018glitter\u2019] to warm the planet, but that\u2019s five thousand times less than you would need with previous proposals to globally warm Mars,\u201d said Mr Kite. \u201cThis significantly increases the feasibility of the project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Astronauts still won\u2019t be able to breathe on Mars because of the thin air so it will be a long time before humans can walk on the surface unaided.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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