This is planetary radio. Hi everyone and welcome back I'm Matt Kaplan you hear her week after week sharing the

solar system's most intimate secrets.

Finally on this week's show we'll get to know Emily Lachto-Wala a little better

as we learn more about Red Rover goes to Mars.

And later on Bruce Betts will have news of what's up with that same solar system.

Why we may even consider the mysterious tribal rights of penguins.

I'll be back with Emily right after this. mysterious Tribal Rights of Penguins.

I'll be back with Emily right after this from Emily.

Hi, I'm Emily Lockwala with questions and answers.

A listener asked, would it be possible to grow desert plants on Mars since the atmosphere is mostly

carbon dioxide and water vapor? Even the most hardy desert plant would almost

certainly die if it were planted on Mars today. There are three problems for

potential plants on Mars. Low atmospheric pressure, low temperature, and lack of liquid water.

How much thicker and warmer would the Martian atmosphere have to be before plants could be introduced?

Right now, Mars's atmosphere is more than 100 times

thinner than the sea-level atmosphere on Earth. However, a piece of good news for our

desert plants is that there is both relatively and absolutely more carbon dioxide in Mars's

atmosphere than there is an Earth's atmosphere. So Mars has enough carbon dioxide, but

plants also require liquid water in the atmosphere.

Mars's atmospheric pressure would have to be about three times what it is now,

or about 30 times thinner than the Earth's,

in order to be saturated with water vapor and carbon dioxide.

...