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Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Why Mars is small

Yes the Martian atmosphere was stripped by the solar wind, which was a consequence of the planet not being large enough to keep its interior from cooling off, which caused it to not have a magnetic field, which allowed the solar wind to hit the planet directly. I'm sure you know all this: I just clarify for general benefit.

The theory seems to be that Jupiter and Saturn did a little dance early on, preventing Mars from reaching proper size and preventing the formation of a planet where the asteroids are. Bode's Law is largely thought now to be just coincidence, but I suspect the scientists have jumped the gun a bit, since the idea that the planets would space themselves, all else being equal (which in most cases it probably is not) makes sense.

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