Possible Implications for Mars
(Levison et al. 2001)
Mars would have been slammed by comets during the LHB.
- Thus, no Martian surface may be older than 3.8Ga.
- We see no primordial surfaces!
- Although there may be older rocks.
- The earliest Martian events (Early Noachian) may have taken place over a much more compressed timescale than previously thought.
- Mars would have accumulated ~6X1022g of cometary material during an outer SS LHB.
- A mixture of rock, water, and CO2.
- This could have led to a 1 - 2 bar atmosphere long after Mars formed.
