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Planetary science

Snapshots of an ancient cover-up

Nature volume 397, pages 560–561 (1999)Cite this article

Mars is a superb and arguably unique natural laboratory for the study of climate in the early stage of evolution of the terrestrial planets. As described in four papers in this issue1,2,3,4, beginning on page 584, spectacular images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, an instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, are providing a new view of the processes that shaped the Martian surface.

Shortly after the planets formed 4.5 billion years ago, planetismal impacts on their surfaces, and the differentiation of metal and rock to form planetary cores and mantles, heated the interiors of the terrestrial planets. As these planets rapidly cooled they liberated volatile gases to form atmospheres and, at least on Earth, the oceans. Both Earth and Mars underwent these processes, but the geological record on Earth predominantly preserves surfaces younger than 500 million years old; earlier records have been eradicated by processes such as subduction, continental collision and erosion. On Mars, however, most surfaces have ages greater than three billion years and they retain tantalizing hints that the early heat-loss phase on this planet produced climatic conditions that were much more hospitable than the cold, desert-like environment that exists now5, 6.

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Figure 1: Mars Orbiter Camera image 605 illustrates, in a single view, many of the insights about Mars gained from recent high-resolution pictures 1,2,3,4.

MICHAEL MALIN, MALIN SPACE SCIENCE SYSTEMS

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  1. the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 02139-4307, Massachusetts, USA

    Maria T. Zuber

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  1. Maria T. Zuber
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Zuber, M. Snapshots of an ancient cover-up. Nature 397, 560–561 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/17478

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