cosmobc
Why Mars has lost its atmosphere is still a mystery I admit...
but in the article they said that the Earth is loosing its atmosphere faster than Mars or Venus, and they meant in percentage (if I understood well). So basically Venus can loose much more molecules than the Earth, but in percentage the Earth is loosing way more, because Venus has an atmosphere 93 times denser than the Earth (not a 1000 times denser
razz --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus#Atmosphere_and_climate )
((I wonder what made me think 1000, I'll go back and read my text book I'm mixing up my numbers again XD))
I see, Ha some times when I read something the first time I get excited and read through it too fast haha.
Getting back to Mars though, 2 billion years ago it was similar to early earth and that lasted over a billion years. Maybe its the same reasons we're losing our atmosphere it just happened faster because Mars is smaller and has less gravity. Gases escaped along the field lines like smoke out a chimney but less energy was needed for them to escape because of the lower gravity. From that statement from the article that I quoted
"In addition to triggering aurorae, the process causes Earth's atmosphere to heat up to the point where atmospheric gases can escape along the field lines, where they are then picked up by the solar wind."
I can hardly believe it that our magnetic field actually in a sense helps to erode the atmosphere in those spots because that energy is not just entering at the same concentration that it had been spread out in if its funneled down the magnetic field lines there for its more considerated because its no longer spread out now it needs to enter in through a smaller aria. Because the energy is more focused, the friction creates hotter air in that smaller area than it would have been if it had entered sped out at its regular concentration ((like consternating sun light with a magnifying glass)), Of cores I still feel much safer with our magnetic field than with out XD haha.