The question is *why* was Mars warmer back then?  If this was due to the sun
being "hotter", then sure we could interpolate and assume Earth must have
been even warmer than Mars.  Though we know this wasn't the case, there are
very few other solar system-scale contingencies (that I can think of) that
equate to "Mars hot, Earth hotter".

Last I heard on this issue, it seemed we were quite lucky the Earth wasn't a
solid block of ice for most of its early history, even with CO2 levels a few
orders of magnitude higher than modern day.


 wrote in message
news:c8098n$230t$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> While reading an interview with Steve Squyres
> who oversees the science operations of
> both rovers and a team of
> 170 researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion lab,
> I read this,
>
> "mars is a cold, dry , miserable
> place now, but we have tantalizing clues, mostly from
> data taken from orbit, that suggest that in the past
> it may have been very different - warmer and wetter and more
> Earth - like."  (Discover Dialogue June '04)
>
> Then the obvious dawned on me. IF mars has liquid water;
> then closer-to-the-sun, and larger atmosphere, Earth must
> have been hot hot hot.
>
> I think this gives strong support for the Earth being
> hot at life's origin.
>
> Comment?
>
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