Mars 'remains in embryonic state'

[Gerald]

Mars formed in record time, growing to its present size in a mere three million years, much quicker than scientists previously thought.

Its rapid formation could explain why the Red Planet is about one tenth the mass of Earth.

The study supports a 20-year-old theory that Mars remained small because it avoided collisions with planetary building material.

The new finding is published in the journal Nature.

In our early Solar System, well before planets had formed, a frisbee-shaped cloud of gas and dust encircled the Sun.

Scientists believe that the planets grew from material pulled together by electrostatic charges - the same force that's behind the "dust bunnies" under your bed.

These proto-planetary dust balls grew and grew until they formed what scientists term "embryo" planets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13567381


Note: 27 May 2011 Last updated at 13:35 GMT

[Torplexed]

And we all thought Earth was a half-baked planet.

[Task Force]

Hmm, no i will make a conspiracy theory that mars is actually a martian base where aliens are spying on us!!!! YOU AREN'T SAFE INSIDE YER MINDS I TELL YA!!!

lol

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Task Force

Hmm, no i will make a conspiracy theory that mars is actually a martian base where aliens are spying on us!!!! YOU AREN'T SAFE INSIDE YER MINDS I TELL YA!!!

lol

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Task Force

Hmm, no i will make a conspiracy theory that mars is actually a martian base where aliens are spying on us!!!! YOU AREN'T SAFE INSIDE YER MINDS I TELL YA!!!

lol

I believe, here's the proof

[Gerald]

Mars Global Surveyor Narrow Angle Camera in July 1998.
The target area lies in the Cebrenia quadrangle of Mars and is centered on 33.25° latitude, 238.6° longitude. The crater is approximately 4 kilometers in diameter.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Vendor

Mars Global Surveyor Narrow Angle Camera in July 1998.
The target area lies in the Cebrenia quadrangle of Mars and is centered on 33.25° latitude, 238.6° longitude. The crater is approximately 4 kilometers in diameter.

Beautiful picture.

However, give a typical internet conspiracy theorist a couple of minutes to enhance that picture by fiddling with the sliders on Photoshop and he'll create a host of jpeg artifacts that he'll quickly claim are proof of biological life and structures built by intelligent beings on Mars. Beings NASA doesn't want you to know about.