@edwinkite.bsky.social
Resident at Astera Institute. Planetary science professor, U. Chicago. Mars terraforming, Early Mars, rocky exoplanets. https://sseh.uchicago.edu/
New paper: "Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars", Nature, open access: rdcu.be/euuTb . Inspired by data from Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover
03.07.2025 07:01 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Terraforming session @agu.org 2025 Fall Meeting: P008 - Creating sustainable habitats and ecosystems beyond Earth
To submit an abstract, please visit
agu.confex.com/agu/agu25/pr...
biogeochemistry, in-situ resource utilization, oxygen production, ecology, and space physics and space environment monitoring, as well as the exploration and distribution of terraforming-relevant resources. Submissions on technologies/techniques that support terraforming goals are also encouraged.
01.07.2025 03:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0We encourage contributions on all aspects of both local and global terraforming, including planetary atmospheres, climate modeling/climate feedbacks, monitoring of climate change beyond Earth, spacecraft data analysis, hydrology, soil/regolith composition and suitability (or otherwise) for life,
01.07.2025 03:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0If we decide in the future to create sustainable habitats and ecosystems beyond Earth, then science will have a critical role to play. As the cost of access to space continues to fall, a fresh look at the research agenda for this topic is timely.
01.07.2025 03:55 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Conveners: Edwin Kite ( @asterainstitute.bsky.social + @uchicagopsd.bsky.social
), Nina Lanza (LANL), @rdword.bsky.social (@harvard.edu), and Chuanfei Dong (BU)
Terraforming session @agu.org 2025 Fall Meeting: P008 - Creating sustainable habitats and ecosystems beyond Earth
To submit an abstract, please visit
agu.confex.com/agu/agu25/pr...
Today I and 11 other scientists describe in Nature Astronomy how recent breakthroughs in launch capabilities, climate, and synthetic biology demand a new assessment of the feasibility of terraforming Mars.
www.erikadebenedictis.com/s/The-case-f...
Heads up: terraforming Mars isn’t just sci-fi, it’s a real possibility that’s possible with today’s technology.
Mars could be green in MY lifetime. 🚀 🌼
What’s stopping us? We need a lot more real research into how to do it right. Don’t nuke Mars!
👇
Big thanks to @edwinkite.bsky.social whose talk on prospects for terraforming Mars filled our conference room and elicited lively discussion.
12.05.2025 20:08 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Another video vision of terraformed Mars through the lens of Casey Handmer's Google Mars overlay: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du7j...
03.05.2025 16:18 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A video vision of terraformed Mars through the lens of Casey Handmer's Google Mars overlay: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1lf...
03.05.2025 16:17 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Illustration of two stages of exoplanet 55 Cancri e's proposed lava cycle. The planet may oscillate between cloud-free, hotter conditions (left) and cloudy, cooler conditions (right).
🧵1/3 New research by @climate.columbia.edu postdoc Kaitlyn Loftus, Yangcheng Luo, colleagues suggests extreme weather on exoplanet 55 Cancri e may be caused by lava cycle...like Earth’s water cycle, but with molten rock! Lava clouds form & decay in cycle that causes temps to swing by 2500°F in week.
01.05.2025 13:21 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
It was fun to discuss Mars terraforming with @davidkipping.bsky.social ! Link: m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dae...
27.04.2025 10:49 — 👍 19 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0Within our model, Mars radiative-dynamical feedbacks enable engineered-aerosol warming. Challenges remain, including functionalization, agglomeration, dry-deposition experiments, and modeling water cycle
feedbacks. Happy to now be working @asterainstitute.bsky.social on these problem!
The Hadley cell strengthens under warming, aiding mixing.
03.04.2025 14:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Both compositions can give fast global warming of ~30 K. We infer that 2 liters/second release rate of graphene made from Mars' atmosphere via CO2-electrolysis could double Mars' greenhouse effect (+5 K).
03.04.2025 14:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
To warm Mars using engineered aerosol, particles released locally must disperse globally. Using a plume-tracking climate model without a water cycle, we investigate radiative-dynamical feedback from surface release of two particle compositions: graphene and Al.
03.04.2025 14:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Warming Mars' surface could be a step toward making it suitable for life, but would represent a major science and engineering challenge.
03.04.2025 14:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
🚨🚨New paper alert! "Atmospheric dynamics of first steps toward terraforming Mars", Richardson et al. 🚨🚨
03.04.2025 14:30 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
We could — if we tried — potentially raise Mars's temperature by 30°C well within this century
asteriskmag.com/issues/09/gr...
For keeping Earth cool, climateengineering.uchicago.edu is hiring at all levels. Spread the word! climateengineering.uchicago.edu/faculty-jobs/
22.12.2024 07:55 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Check out 🏆A Biologist’s Guide to Mars Dirt, where we present a receipt for soluble Mars Regolith Media (sMRM) that best simulates what you’d get if you added water to Mars dirt.
Will anything grow in this media? Stay tuned!
💧+ 🪨 → 🌱 ?
open.substack.com/pub/pioneerl...
"Population-level Hypothesis Testing with Rocky Planet Emission Data: A Tentative Trend in the Brightness Temperatures of M-Earths" (Brandon Park Coy et al.)
arxiv.org/abs/2412.06573
