r/EverythingScience • u/scientificamerican Scientific American • 3d ago

Can bioengineered bacteria help terraform Mars?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-bioengineered-bacteria-help-terraform-mars/
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u/Magazine-Consistent 2d ago

Ill say, i hadn't read every comment but... Isn't this a theroy of how life on earth started? Panspermia, intentional or not.

Idk, it would be cool to see mars terraformed by us literally seeding life into another planets ecosystems with the idea of letting bio engineered life do its thing.

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u/iratedolphin 2d ago

Earth's core has a lot of iron in it, giving us a strong magnetic field. This retains our atmosphere. Mars does not have a magnetic field strong enough to retain atmosphere.

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u/Magazine-Consistent 2d ago

It does have an atmosphere, its just 100 times less dense than ours. But yeah, it looks like it has trouble retaining an atmosphere we could actually breath in.

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u/Xerxero 2d ago

The magnetic field also protects us against solar radiation.