Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to uhhh, Nick

re: uhhh, Nick
Nick Hoffman — (archived)

"by the reaction of Neutrons ... with nitrogen and, to a lesser extent, with oxygen and carbon"

And the Nuclear bomb thing is the same - largely neutrons hitting the atmosphere.

So? There will still be vastly less C14 on Mars than Earth because the cosmic rays and the derived neutrons have far fewer opportunities to hit N, C, and O in the atmosphere than on Earth - they hit the surface instead and activate the Silicate rock. Although this rock contains O, there will still be very little C14 produced because:

1) Higher atomic mass elements have a larger neurtron capture X-section
2) The O content of rock is not excessive
3) The Neutron capture reaction with O is intrinsically inefficient.

So, I'll modify my "none" to "very little", but that's as far as the physics goes, and ever will go unless you can find something new that the rest of the scientific world doesn't know about!

If you can be bothered to do the real maths, based on neutron capture, or find a reference that actually applies to Mars, then I'll continue but until then, EP, youre wrong, damn wrong, and well out of your depth.

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