Global Journal of Science Frontier Research, A: Physics and Space Science, Volume 23 Issue 5

The New Mars Synthesis: Circumstantial Evidence of a Past Persistent Gaia on the Red Planet J. E. Brandenburg I. I ntroduction: I nductive R easoning and The R ole of B iology In U nderstanding M ars P ast and P resent o form or test hypothesis by some precise measurement is the favored mode of modern science, and is deductive reasoning, however, to recognize a pattern formed by large numbers of measurements is to form a synthesis, which is inductive reasoning. These are two modes of thought recognized since Aristotle. . To form a synthesis is to recognize a galaxy and its associated dynamics, as opposed to studying the individual stars of the galaxy. Both processes of thought are essential to science, one process provides precise data and the other uses that data to understand the larger relationships of that data. The planet Mars, with its surface displaying a range of terrains, some heavily cratered and others only lightly cratered, and evidence of massive, global, water induced erosion, including a Paleo-Ocean bed on its most lightly cratered portion, Brandenburg (1986) Clifford and Parker (1999), and highly oxidized surface, with only scarce carbonates, betrays a past much different than its present state. That extensive past may now be understood as an epoch of an Earth-like Gaia regime, where a massive and persistent biosphere modified the Mars environment to favor life bearing conditions. The end of those same conditions meant also the end of the massive biosphere, explaining Mars present state. Massive biology can be understood to have stabilized the Mars environment, Brandenburg (2015), over most of geologic time, as it did on Earth. Mars past can be understood as a pattern of interlocking puzzles, however, as will be shown, the solution of one puzzle leads to the solution of another. T 1 Year 2023 3 Frontier Research Volume XXIII Issue ersion I VV ( A ) Science © 2023 Global Journals Global Journal of Author: Kepler Aerospace Ltd Midland Texas. e-mail: jebrandenburg@kepleraerospace.com Abstract- Based on a large scale synthesis of data, Mars can be understood to be a planet with a flourishing, Gaia-type, biosphere in the past, where life modified its environment from an early epoch so that it became the home of a massive Earth- like biosphere, before an anomalous mass extinction event, reduced it to its present state with only a weak, residual biosphere. Such a possibility is strongly suggested by circumstantial evidence gathered form a variety of sources. The Mars crate ring rate, is shown to be much higher than Lunar leading to the average surface age in the Northern Hemisphere to be approximately 1/2 billion years or less. This is proven by the average age of younger Mars meteorites, the Nakhlites and Shergottites, of less than 1 Billion years. The young surface ages make signs of liquid water on Mars more recent and indicate that the liquid water epoch on Mars lasted for most of Mars geologic history. This requires a high pressure CO 2 greenhouse in the presence of large amounts of ferrous silicates, requiring, in turn, a high oxygen level atmosphere to provide geochemical stability. This results in a red Mars due to large amounts of Hematite in the soil and few carbonates. This oxygenated atmosphere, in turn, requires massive photosynthesis, as occurs on Earth, since UV photolysis of water is self-limiting whereas photosynthesis is self-amplifying by formation of an ozone layer to protect plant life. Mars thus became very Earthlike in environment, with a mixed CO 2 and CH 4 greenhouse produced by a high pressure oxygen rich atmosphere, until some cataclysm ended all but a present residual biosphere. A modern example of inductive reasoning was the recognition of the Gaia Principle by Lovelock and Margulis, (1974). The recognition of the relationship of life as part of a biosphere that helped shape the geochemical evolution of the Earth so that it was more hospitable to life, was a grand synthesis using data drawn from many disciplines within chemistry, biology, ecology, and geology. It can be said that the Gaia Principle is the inference from a vast body of data on Earth that the laws of physics favor biology on a massive scale. But what of other planets? Would not the laws of physics be cosmic in their application, and therefore create Gaias beyond the Earth? It will be shown that the proximity of Mars to the asteroid belt, and hence suffering a high cratering rate, Brandenburg (1994), Treiman A. (1995) and Nyquist et al. (1998), leads to an understanding of Mars as a dynamic Earth-like planet for most of its history. Further, the persistence and abundance of signs of liquid water, Tanaka (1996), even on its most lightly cratered regions (see Figure 1),including a lightly cratered Paleo-Ocean bed Brandenburg (1986), requires Earth-like atmo- spheric pressures and a powerful greenhouse effect to have operated until recent geologic times.