Mars, Earth and Venus

   The final 2 planets to study are those closest to the Sun that show signs of global warming, Mars and Earth. Even though it is not undergoing global warming, it is also interesting to look at the planet Venus, in relation to Earth.

Mars

source: nasa.gov

Mars is known as the "Red Planet" due to its color, which comes from the large amount of iron in its soil. It is the fourth planet from the Sun, in between Earth and Jupiter. Recent news about Mars has largely been focused on the strong evidence found by scientists that liquid water once flowed on the planet's surface. But another less well-known newsworthy aspect of the planet is that it may be undergoing global warming. (NASA)

The BBC reported that NASA scientists have seen Mars'  deposits of frozen carbon dioxide have been shrinking, for as long as the past 3 summers. The scientists see this as a sign of global warming. The planet has undergone another surface change: the appearance of new gullies captured in a photo taken in April 2005. The scientists believe that " such gullies might have formed when frozen carbon dioxide, trapped by windblown sand during winter, vaporised rapidly in spring, releasing gas that made the sand flow as a gully-carving fluid." (BBC)

     National Geographic also reported on the changes in temperature on the Red Planet. This article focused more on a specific scientist, Habibullo Abdussamatov, who has a controversial theory that the Sun is responsible for all the global warming on the Earth and Mars. The article also points out that both Mars and Earth have been thought to have gone through ice ages. Abdussamatov says that global warming is mostly solar-induced and that human contribution is minor at best.  His theory has not been received well by fellow climatologists.

Earth

source: nasa.gov

   Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and although it may seem large to those that inhabit it, it is one of the smaller planets in the solar system.  It is also the only known planet where life is present. There are two main reasons behind this: that there is liquid water present on the Earth's surface, and that it is the "Goldilocks Planet." This expression means that Earth, at 93 million miles away from the Sun, is not too hot and not too cold, making the perfect conditions for living beings. (NASA)

     But Earth has been undergoing global warming during the past century, that may endanger these perfect living conditions. So scientists and people in general have begun to look at the planet next door, Venus, a little more closely, as people start to wonder if one day Earth could become just like Venus.

   Venus

source: nasa.gov

     Venus has quite an ironic name. It was named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty, but a trip to Venus would be anything but beautiful. The massive pressure, scorching hot temperatures, thick clouds of sulfuric acid, and many active volcanoes have given Venus the nickname of Earth's "evil twin."

    Venus is considered Earth's twin because they are so close in size, as Venus's diameter is only 400 miles smaller than Earth's. But that is where the similarities end. Venus' atmosphere is unlike Earth's in that it is primarily made of carbon dioxide, the famous greenhouse gas that scientists are so worried about on Earth. The greenhouse effect is very present on Venus as the atmosphere traps so much of the  Sun's heat. Because of this, Venus is an amazingly hot planet, with a surface temperature of 870 degrees F.  It is also a dry planet, as there is not liquid water, as it would boil away.  Venus also has immense atmospheric pressure, about 90 times of that on Earth. (NASA)

     

      The surface of Venus has mountains, canyons, valleys, level ground and volcanoes. Thick clouds of sulfuric acid cover the planet, making it impossible for visible light to penetrate. Therefore, scientists cannot use telescopes to explore the surface of Venus but must instead use radio waves. (NASA)

     There is no evidence to support that life exists on Venus. Astronomers believe the planet is much too hot to sustain life.

    

      The Guardian reported in April 2006, about a European spacecraft that was getting ready to explore Venus. The article explained the similarities and differences of the planet and noted that astronomers believe it is possible that Venus has liquid water at one point in its history.  It is a fear that Earth will some day become just like its "evil twin" as the gas that is blamed for global warming makes up most of Venus' atmosphere. It should also be noted that both Venus and Earth are in a zone of orbits where they are at a perfect distance from the Sun to both be "Goldilock Planets." So, Venus' atmosphere, not its position in terms of closeness to the Sun, is to blame for its inhospitable state.

Will the Earth ever become like Venus? Its impossible to say, but the temperature of Venus is still very far from Earth's. Even though that kind of heat and dryness seems so far away, it might be wise to use Venus as a reminder of the dangers of the greenhouse effect.

Conclusion

source: thegraceacadmey.org

     So is global warming solar-induced? It is possible, but its too early to tell, as the theory is relatively new. Scientists who support the idea need more evidence before the idea is accepted by the general science community. But as we wait for more test results to come in, more evidence to be found, it would not be a bad idea to walk to the store, instead of driving.

Enceladus and Jupiter

We move further into the solar system, past Uranus where there is not believed to be any global warming to Saturn's moon Enceladus, and then to Jupiter.

Enceladus

Source: cbc.com

The CBC reported that geyser is exploding on the surface on one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus. It is a small moon, with a diameter of about 1/7 of our moon's. The observations of the geyser come from the spacecraft Cassini-Hyugens, launched by NASA. Scientists are puzzled by this explosion, because they do not know how Enceladus could have enough heat to power the geyser to explode. This may or may not be due to global warming. Right now, the plausible answer, accepted by most scientists, is that there is radioactive matter decaying inside the moon's core.

Jupiter

Source: http://www.mallorcaweb.net/masm/Planetas/Jupiter.jpg

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, as it is commonly refered to as the "Giant Planet." Its diameter is 11 times that of the Earth's. It is a ball of gas, probably helium and hydrogen, with little or no solid surface. The dark clouds are known as belts and the light clouds are zones. Jupiter's most distinctive feature is its Great Red Spot, a storm comparitive to an Earthy hurricane, seen below.

Source: nasa.gov

The famous Great Red Spot has a newly formed "son", according to an article by USA Today. This second red spot is called "Red Spot Junior" by scientists, and studies have emerged attributing this new red spot to global warming. The storm formed when two smaller, weaker storms merged together. Red Spot Jr. is growing quite rapidly, which astronomers see as evidence of a significant temperature rise in that area of the planet. The Hubble Space Telescope provided the images of the broad area where the storm is and a close up, seen below.

Source: usatoday.com

SPACE.com also reported on the arrival of Red Spot Jr. Imke de Pater, a professor at University of California, Berkley, told SPACE.com that "The storm is growing in altitude." The growth in altitude is also a signal of rising temperatures.

Enceladus and Jupiter are last planets/moons before the asteroid belt that have signs that could be seen as global warming. Moving towards the Sun, past the belt, is the planet Mars. Mars is the only inner planet besides Earth that might be undergoing solar induced global warming. This will the subject of the next post as well as an examination of the Earth's relationship to the Sun and Earth's twin planet Venus and its interesting atmosphere.

Pluto, Neptune and Triton

So, we have looked at the Sun and the idea that it could be burning brighter than ever, and therefore effecting global warming on Earth, but for this idea to be plausible, global warming must be present on other planets. Therefore, scientists have been observing Pluto and the 8 planets in the solar system, trying to discover any evidence of global warming.

I will begin my overview of the eight planets and Pluto by starting from the outer reaches of the solar system and working back inwards towards the Sun, skipping the planets with no signs of global warming.

Pluto

Source: http://depts.washington.edu/kexp/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/pluto1.jpg

So we start with Pluto, the dwarf planet. Unfortunately for Pluto, as National Geographic reports, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted in 2006 that Pluto was no longer a planet. This is because of the IAU officially defined the word planet "as an object that orbits the sun and is large enough to have become round due to the force of its own gravity. In addition, a planet has to dominate the neighborhood around its orbit." Pluto does not "dominate" its neighborhood as its moon, Charon, is half Pluto's size. Other planets are much larger than their moons.

Source: http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2007/05/poor_pluto_mathias_pedersen.jpg

Even though Pluto is no longer a planet, it still might be undergoing solar-induced global warming, according to some scientists. SPACE.com reports that researchers have found that Pluto's atmospheric pressure has tripled in the past 14 years, indicating a dramatic rise in temperature. Some astronomers attribute this to explosive activity on the surface, or seasonal change. SPACE. com continues, by describing what most astronomers attribute the temperature rise to: how close Pluto was to the Sun in 1989. David Tholen, a professor of astronomy at the University of Hawaii, says that even though Pluto is moving away from the Sun now, it would take the dwarf planet a while to warm up. This study was performed by a group of American scientists, including Tholen.

ABC News reports that another study reports a rise in temperature on Pluto, this one from the University of Tasmania. This study gave very similar results, but added that the atmosphere is denser.
MIT News reported on the same study Tholen was involved in, as it included MIT professors as well. The report included a note that Neptune's moon, Triton, is very similar to Pluto and studies are being done on Triton to investigate possible similarities.

Neptune and Triton

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRy1w5we58LNS2YxiPmjXch3VoB1Q7maYrEsaN2OZlIxDmffjrzbPg8JiYeJ6OHHuG9FI8EtCKVRKTDJDno-KnXYekgnDmrL4rJBM7y1X9kAATOmt9iXPI2EHBfp1oRxEowIwzvaeEIh1/s1600-h/103989main_neptune1.jpg

Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun. It is 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. It is 17 times more massive than Earth as well. "Scientists believe that Neptune is made up chiefly of hydrogen, helium, water, and silicate." Thick cloads cover the planet, and these coulds move at a rapid rate, moving at 700 mph. There are methane clouds at the top of the atmosphere and darker hydrogen sulfide clouds below it. (NASA)

I could not find any solid scientific evidence or studies concerning Neptune and possible global warming. I found a few conservative blogs that say Neptune is brighter than ever and therefore experiencing global warming. Most continued to attack global warming advocate Al Gore. Therefore I could not use these sources, as they seemed too biased.

In contrast, Neptune's moon, Triton, has been studied by scientists, because it is so similar to Pluto. Triton is Neptune's largest moon. MIT reseachers found that Triton's temperature has risen by 5% since the Voyager space probe visited it in 1989. This is very unsual for such a short amount of time. This trend is causing frozen methane on the surface to turn into gas, making the atmosphere more dense.

The Sun

One of the major motives for studying global warming on other planets is to explore the prospect of global warming on Earth being caused by the Sun. To fully understand this idea we must first start with the Sun itself, and its place in the solar system.

The sun is the center of our solar system. Eight planets, Pluto and Charon orbit the Sun. It was born 4.6 billion years ago, and has enough energy to sustain itself for another 5 billion years. The surface of the sun, what we see on Earth has a temperature of about 5800 K. The core's temperature reaches over 15,000,000 K. The energy from the sun comes from fusion inside the core. This fusion involves hydrogen atoms coliding together. This collision forms helium atoms and releases energy.

Those who hold the opinion that the Sun is the cause of global warming, or atleast contributing to it, are citing researchers that say they have observed an increase in the Sun's radiation over the past 60 years. These researchers include Richard Wilson, a Columbia University researcher who is affliated with NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies.

Wilson's research was conducted using a satellite. Wilson believes that the Suns radiation has been increasing for the past century. He used pre-satellite era data to make this conclusion. Wilson said to SPACE.com that "the Sun's possible influence has been largely ignored because it is so difficult to quantify over long periods." However, Wilson does not believe that the Sun is the only factor contributing to global warming. He told SPACE.com that his findings "do not mean industrial pollution has not been a significant factor." He also cautioned that this trend could be short term, if newer satellite data proves to contradict his current findings. This data could also be confounded by the Sun's natural 11 year cycle, during which the energy produced by the Sun waxes and wanes. The current cycle reached its maximum peak in the year 2000 and reached a second peak in 2002. The following picture shows the change in the Sun during the cycle, dating from 1996 a low, 1998 midway, to 1999, almost at the maximum.



Wilson also provided SPACE.com with a graph showing the connection between temperatures on Earth and rises in solar activity. The dotted line shows solar activity and the solid line shows average temperature on the Northern Hemisphere. The lines do increase together in a general trend.



The Telegraph, a British newspaper, printed an opinion article on 7/17/2004, entitled "The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame." The article cited research from German and Swiss scientists that have found a connection between sunspots and temeperature. They believe the more sunspots, the higher the temperature, and vice versa. One researcher, Dr. David Viner did note that "that the study also showed that over the past 20 years the number of sunspots had remained roughly constant, while the Earth's temperature had continued to increase."

The research connecting the Sun to global warming on Earth is quite new and has not been accepted by the science community as a cause for global warming as much as greenhouse gas emissions. This might change as more studies are conducted and observations of the Sun's temperature continue.

Annotated Sources

The following are the sources I will use to compile my information for this blog. There is also a list of these sources in the upper right hand menu and they are sorted into seperate lists based on the item they discuss (ex. Pluto, General Information, Jupiter, the Sun etc.).

1. RealClimate.Org - This website is a commentary site, run by climate scientists. These scientists answer questions and provide information to the interested public.

2. NASA.gov - includes articles and information about the planets of the solar system, the sun and its relationship to the plantes. The site also includes an article about using the moon to "shed light on Earth's climate change"

3. USA Today Article - about storms on Jupiter that may hint towards global warming.

4. BBC Article on Climate Activity on Mars- BBC International article about Mars, reporting that there may be more activity on Mars' surface than previously suspected by NASA.

5. Telegraph Article - Opinion article from the UK newspaper that expresses the opinion that the sun is to blame for global warming- not humanity.

6. The Guardian Article- from comparing Venus to Earth and questioning if global warming could transform Earth into Venus.

7. National Geographic Article - describes changes on Mars that hint to a solar cause for global warming.

8. MIT- Research that reveals there might be global warming on Pluto. Released by MIT News.