33
Mars atmosphere today
•Pressure is only ~1% of Earth’s
•Composition:  95% CO2    3% N2    2% Ar
•
•Water:
–Pressure too low for liquid water to exist
•Water goes directly from solid phase to gas phase
•CO2 (dry ice) acts like this even at terrestrial atmospheric pressure
–Water seen in atmosphere
–Water seen in polar caps
–Evidence of running water in past
–
•Carbon dioxide (CO2)
–Gets cold enough for even this to freeze at polar caps
–Unusual meteorology, as atmosphere moves from one pole to other each “year”