Geomorphologic features on Mars are eerily evocative of those on Earth. These channels were likely incised by "ancient outbursts of flood waters." Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
On Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C., Dale Russell spoke to a semi-full auditorium at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences about his new book, Island in the Cosmos. Russell, a senior curator of paleontology at the museum, talked about the possibility of carbon-based life evolving or surviving on Mercury, Venus, Mars or Titan. All the planets except Mars were quickly dispatched with for one reason or another as being ill suited to life as we know it. But other than glossing over references to stratigraphy, it was not clear to me what the paleontology connection was in his talk. (Comparative Astrobiology may have been a more apt title.) I took two main impressions home: the amazingly similar geomorphology of Mars to Earth, and the analogy of an elderly person facing their death to that of the human species staring down the deadline of Earth expiring its hospitality to our kind. Regarding the comparative geomorphologic features, he showed images of features on Mars and compared them with known and well-understood geological features on Earth. Several images depicted riverine beds which he said could only have been created by flowing rivers or single episodes of glacial meltwater. Other structures he presented showed mountains built from flowing “lava.” I wish I had brought pen and paper with me to jot down specific quotes, but sadly I did not. Russell said that if the Martian polar caps were to melt, there would be enough water to cover the planet’s surface to a depth of about 75 feet. I haven’t done much reading in the planetary sciences, but this factoid surprised me. He flashed a slide of what Mars may have looked like when younger, and covered partly in water. It was eerily evocative of Earth when terrestrial land was locked up in Pangea. But the most intriguing aspect to me was his timeline for the Earth’s demise. I had previously read that eventually the sun will swell and turn into a red giant before collapsing into a white dwarf. In its swollen stage, it will swallow Mercury, Venus and then Earth. This will happen when the Earth is about 12 billion years old, or 7.5 billion years from now… okay, I’ve heard this before. But Russell said that the temperature on Earth will grow so hot as to preclude multicellular life long before the planet is swallowed by our source of life, the sun. Long before. As in about 1.5 billion years from now, or when Earth is roughly 6 billion years old. In a single shot of insight, I better understood why there was such a serious research streak to figure out how to colonize other planets. Previously, when I read lofty ideas about colonizing Mars with humans, my gut instinct was that it was a cop-out trajectory for avoiding dealing with our over consumption patterns on Earth and generally making a mess of things. But just as elderly people face their twilight years with a forward-looking perspective that frets over how their progeny will fare in the future without them, so too is humanity faced with the “deadline” of our demise on earth 1.5 billion years from now. Our species is old enough and intelligent enough to forecast the death of the environment which gave rise to us. Suddenly, I am more compelled to put planetary science topics on my reading list.
“I wish I had brought pen and paper with me to jot down specific quotes, ”
I believe Dr Russell said the text of his talk would be available online eventually. I have emailed him about the availability of the file, and if I find a link I will post it here.
Hello Ann — He did indeed say that, you are correct. When I wrote that last night, I was reflecting more in terms of the wonderful asides he threw in spontaneously, which I am sure were not scripted in the paper he read from during his talk. Some of them were quite funny, and I wish I had caught them. But please do feel free to post the manuscript if you get ahold of it!
[...] Interplanetary paleontology? [...]
Yes, the unscripted bits were the best, and gave a much more personal feel to the talk. I particularly liked the reference to heffalumps.
I didn’t realize that they had forecasted such a short lifespan for the earth; this was interesting, I hadn’t heard it before.
That said, 1.5 billion years from now is still plenty of time to be worrying about it. It’s kind of like a 40 year old looking down the road and worrying about providing for their grandchildren. Okay, it’s a valid concern. But if you don’t take care of your *children*, first, there ain’t gonna be no grandchildren.
I think at the rate we’re devastating our planet, it’s going to last us much fewer than 1.5 billion years. I think it’s going to last us much fewer than 1.5 million years, in fact. If you look at the technological progress that has been made in the last 200 years, I think trying to figure out a way to get to, and to live on, Mars is a little premature. Why not wait a few thousand years for technology to evolve some more? We’re in no immediate rush, we have 1.5 billion years. And in the meantime, spend the resources that you’re currently putting into interplanetary research – which are not insignificant – on maintaining the health of the world you currently live in so that you’ll still be here to need the red planet 1.5 billion years from now.
Hi Seabrooke, thanks for stopping by. The 1.5 by time frame is more like a lifespan for life on earth, as I understand it, rather than a lifespan for the planet, which will still be around for several billion years until the sun engulfs it in its red giant stage. I agree with you that conservation should still be a major goal, and amelioration of ecosystems damaged by us. I would hope that most people don’t adopt a fatalistic attitude toward conserving the diversity of life on earth just because there is an endpoint in the time line. Rather, the revelation that I had upon hearing his talk was more of an acceptance for this line of research into interplanet colonization. Before, I would read about this sort of thing and roll my eyes and say,’ Why not put this money into conservation!’ But I get it a little bit more now. With that said, I don’t think that human colonies on Mars or anywhere else would ever be able to geo-engineer the amazing natural systems were have here on terra firma. Life there would be something else indeed.