Astro 104- HW 3 - Karen Sanchez Astronomy 104 Professor Wilcots TA Kelley DIS 404 21 September 2010 Homework 3 1 a Region Syrtis Major MC-13(275W-315W

Karen Sanchez Astronomy 104 Professor Wilcots TA Kelley DIS 404 21 September 2010 Homework 3 1. a) Region Syrtis Major, MC-13, (275W-315W, 0N-25N) has evidence that liquid water once flowed on the Martian surface because it has a large dark area with channels that flow from the dark sunken region to the higher surfaces. Presumably, these channels acted as an area for water to have once flowed from this “lake” area out. This could be evidence of water in liquid form at some point. Additionally, the craters in this region have other ejecta around them and look like there could have been muddy areas. b) The crater density of region MC-13 is 8 (around 20 km) craters per 296.4 km (5 degree grid). Since the circumference of Mars is 21344 km, and the index shows eight regions across the equatorial region, 21344/8= 2668 km per region and in each region there are 9 grids (5 degrees each), 2668/9= 296.4 km per 5 degree grid. c) Using the Schmidt- Housen scaling, I found the age of region Syrtis Major to be 3.5 Gy. d) Size distribution of Mars impactors per crater density The correlation between the size of the impactor and the size of the crater is that the smaller the impactor and crater, the greater the amount of craters that exist. We know that a crater is ten times the size of its impactor. 2) I would tell the writer that there is a huge possibility of water having existed on Mars because of evidence of polar ice caps (which contain water) and craters with frozen water. Additionally, scientists have found minerals like *hematite on Mars which is mainly found in water. The possibility of the Martian atmosphere being breathable is not high because of the large presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In order for a human to breathe on Mars they would need to have extra oxygen and nitrogen with them.