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Question
If you introduce oxygen to a hot planet like mars would fire appear?
No! Mars is actually very cold! At an average temperature of -81 degrees F, you could hardly expect to start a fire there by simply adding oxygen. Even the hottest spots on Mars can only reach about 77 degrees during the day. At night, Martian temperatures can plummet as far as –193 degrees! This is because Mars is further from the sun than the Earth. Perhaps you confused Mars with the planet Mercury. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, followed by Venus and then Earth. Since Mercury has no atmosphere to insulate itself, it has a huge range of temperatures. It can be anywhere from 800 degrees to –270! Still, the introduction of oxygen alone to Mercury would not cause a sudden fire to break out. The oxygen would simply dissipate into space.
June 26, 2002
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