Name: Why Earth may someday look like Mars
Uploaded: 2016-12-20T21:57:10Z
Duration: 11 min 45 s
Description: Every minute, 400 pounds of hydrogen and almost 7 pounds of helium escape from Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Astrophysicist Anjali Tripathi studies the phenomenon of atmospheric escape, and in this fascinating and accessible talk, she considers how this process might one day (a few billion years from now) turn our blue planet red.

Every minute, 400 pounds of hydrogen and almost 7 pounds of helium escape from Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Astrophysicist Anjali Tripathi studies the phenomenon of atmospheric escape, and in this fascinating and accessible talk, she considers how this process might one day (a few billion years from now) turn our blue planet red.

Why Earth may someday look like Mars

Atmospheric escape is quietly transforming planets, including our own, as gases like hydrogen and helium drift away into space every minute. On Earth, about 400 pounds of hydrogen vanish every sixty seconds, shaping the fate of our atmosphere over billions of years. Mars once had a thicker, wetter environment, but lost its air and water to space, turning into the dry, red world we see today. Studying this process on Earth, Mars, and distant exoplanets reveals how stars chip away at planetary atmospheres and hints at the eventual fate of our blue planet.