Dead Planets Society is a podcast that takes some crazy ideas for how to tinker with the universe and tests their effects against the laws of physics, from snapping the moon in half to causing doomsday events with gravitational waves. apple, Spotify or our Podcast Page.
There are strong feelings about Mars in the planetary science community. Many love it because we know so much about it, while others resent the overwhelming attention it has received at the expense of other planets in the solar system. But in this episode of “Dead Planets Society,” emotions don’t get in the way of the central goal: to completely destroy the Red Planet.
In this episode, the very redness of Mars may signal its demise. The red color of Martian soil comes from iron oxide, and inspired by the magnetic properties of iron, hosts Chelsea White and Leah Crane explore the possibility of destroying Mars with a giant orbital magnet.
Iron oxide itself is not magnetic, but Mars has a liquid iron core. In this episode, our host is a volcanologist. Robin George Andrews Consider how a giant magnet would affect this core.
Depending on the orbit of a giant magnet, it could shake up the core, causing fissures and volcanic activity that could eventually cause Mars to break up completely, or it could pull the core from deep underground through existing vents, such as those at the top of Mars’ giant volcano, Olympus Mons.
Once in space, the liquid iron would freeze into a glowing metallic statue, and much of it could accumulate in the magnet itself, transforming it into something like a giant iron-shielded bullet hurtling through the solar system.
In the process, Mars would hollow out. That alone would be a serious problem for Mars, as its outer layers could break up and rub together, filling the empty space. Or that space could fill with something else. The possibilities are endless, and they could lead to some really disturbing things.
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