Comparative Climate Studies of Earth, Venus and Mars

Abstract

One of the most promising area in Solar System science is the comparative study of the three terrestrial planets (Venus, Earth, Mars). Why did the three planets evolve in such different ways, from relatively comparable initial states? The small size of Mars, favoring atmospheric escape, certainly played a role in making the present Mars so inhospitable. Venus has almost the same size and density as the Earth, and was probably initially endowed with similar amounts of volatile material. The absence of water in significant amounts on Venus, generally explained by intense primitive atmospheric escape, remains poorly constrained and understood. Two specific problems, related to Mars and Venus climate evolution, will be discussed in this talk. One major challenge of Mars studies is to determine the nature of the present Martian atmosphere: is it the residual of an old atmosphere, progressively lost by escape, or is it young, at steady state equilibrium between outgassing and escape? The possible detection of methane in Martian atmosphere suggests that methane currently is being produced, possibly signing outgassing, since methane is the thermodynamically favoured form of carbon, as released by potential volcanism or hydrothermalism, at low Martian temperature and pressure. Although no typical volcanic gas, like SO2, has ever been detected on Mars, the existence of recent lava flows (a few million years old) shows that a residual volcanism is still episodically active. Another possible tracer of outgassing, that is radon 222, seems promising, and could have been detected (although indirectly) in the Martian atmosphere from recent APXS (MER rovers) and Gamma Ray Spectrometer (Mars- Odyssey) measurements. The lack of any isotopic fractionation of carbon and oxygen in Martian CO2, as shown by existing measurements, suggests that the atmosphere of Mars is young, since it should have been fractionated by escape if it is old. This possibility of a young Martian atmosphere, permanently supplied from the planetary interior, will be discussed. Concerning Venus, we will focus on the question of the fate of its primitive ocean. The possibility that Venus was born 'dry', massively losing its atmosphere to space during the first ten million years of its life, will be assessed. It will be shown that massive primitive escape doesn"t necessarily result in strong isotopic fractionation of atmospheric species, and that the few existing information about noble gas isotopic ratios in Venus atmosphere (Ne, Ar) are consistent with a primitive episode of intense hydrodynamic escape.