The terraforming of Mars could be kickstarted using artificially engineered dust particles sourced from the Red Planet itself to raise temperatures by more than 50 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius), a new study suggests.
Currently, the average temperature on the surface of Mars is minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), and the atmospheric pressure is just 6 to 7 millibars, compared to the 1,013 millibars at sea level on Earth. The thin Martian atmosphere is unbreathable, composed of mostly carbon dioxide, and the planet's water is locked up as ice in the polar caps and in subsurface layers of ice found mostly at high and middle latitudes.
