The Climate of Ancient Mars - Kirsten Siebach, Rice Unv. - The Cosmic Companion Jan 26, 2021
Channel: The Cosmic Companion - Science Comedy, Astronomy
Date: 26/01/2021

This week, we talk to Dr. Kirsten Siebach, a Martian geologist from Rice University, talking about her work uncovering secrets of the climate of ancient Mars.But first, we study a newly-discovered system of exoplanets featuring an extreme planet of molten lava. Next, we learn about a so-called cotton-candy planet with a density so low it wasn't thought to be possible. Finally, closer to home, we take a look at a new study revealing that Gale Crater on Mars may have once resembled Iceland, before talking to one of the lead researchers on that study.



Astronomers studying data from the TESS spacecraft have recently found an intriguing family of planets, featuring an extreme rocky world of molten magma. The TOI-561 planetary system, found 280 light years from Earth, is found to have at least three planets. The innermost of this planetary trio is TOI-561 b, a rocky world not much larger than Earth. But, this world orbits so close to its sun that the surface is likely composed of molten lava. And, this extreme exoplanet also orbits at a breakneck rate, circling its stellar parent once every 12 hours. 


A new study of the exoplanet WASP-107b shows this gas giant has a lower density than what was thought possible. This so-called cotton candy planet is as large as Jupiter, but has only one-tenth the mass of the king of our solar system. Astronomers previously believed that gas giants like Jupiter could only form around rocky cores 10 times as massive as Earth or larger, but WASP-107b is just 40 percent of that size.A study of climates around Earth has revealed a surprising fact about ancient Mars. The climate of the Red Planet three billion years ago, at least around Gale Crater, was surprisingly like modern-day Iceland. A team from Rice University made the finding while seeking to better understand the climatic conditions present when layers of sedimentary rocks examined by the Curiosity rover were formed.


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