An Analysis Of Risk At German Banks Essay Sample For College

Abstract

Cross-sectional and regression analysis of ECB data shows that German banks appear to lag peers on the Continent on most earnings, stability and efficiency measures. However, longitudinal analysis for the onset of the current recession suggests that prudence in not pursuing expansion and high-flying revenues may have protected German banks from disastrous losses.

Introduction

The lingering recession precipitated by flawed mortgage decisions earlier in the decade, spun out of control with trans-Atlantic speculation in mortgage-backed securities and emerged full blown in the second semester of 2007 put banks squarely in the spotlight. The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and national central banks are estimated to have injected at least $4 trillion dollars by buying up “distressed assets” and acquiring preferred stock in banks (Altman, 2009)

The toll on financial institutions was severe and even long-established institutions failed. In the UK, government took over Northern Rock. Arguing that the ripple effects would be far worse if the largest banks closed, the USA government bought out AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The Fed also had a hand in letting Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, and Wachovia either close their doors or endure sell-outs to peers in the industry. All told, 23 American banks failed in 2008 and almost as many, 21, closed their doors in 2009. (Recession.org, 2009).

Sovereign risk suffered, too. In November 2009, state-owned Dubai World informed its foreign bankers it would have to reschedule over $9 billion in repayments due December 2009 and over the first three months of 2010 (Sharif and Cochrane, 2009).

In large part, the lesson one draws from the sorry tales of derivatives trading –mortgage-backed securities (MBS), collateralized debt obligations (CDO), credit default swaps (CDS) all finally liquidated at as little as five cents on the dollar – was how little attention investors paid to risk appraisal and pricing.

Review of Relevant Literature and Theory

The magnitude of trillion-dollar subsidies, loans and buyouts has spilled over to the political arena. At Bretton Woods in 1944, the victors of World War II and their allies formalized the idea of government “management” of floating exchange rates based on gold. At the Davos World Economic Forum of 2010, Presidents Obama and Sarkozy urged political and banking leaders to mitigate financial-sector risk by calling for more regulation, cutting banks down to size, banning ownership of (or sponsoring) hedge and private equity funds, as well as engaging in so-called proprietary trading, that for their own account. This follows an agreement among the Group of 20 nations just last year to regulate banks more strenuously in point of capital, liquid assets, and executive compensation plans (Harper and Kirchfeld, 2010).

Dissatisfied with the published statements that concealed nearly as much as they revealed — mainly owing to innovation in the market place, speculation in derivatives and the trade in risk-bearing instruments – Altunbas, Gambacorta, and Marques-Ibanez (2009) set out to model (Equation 1 overleaf) the effects of monetary policy on size, liquidity, capitalization, and investor risk perceptions of new loans by building on an initial investigation Ehrman, Chatelain, Generale, Martinez-Pages, Vermeulen, and Worms (2003) conducted on how banks respond to monetary policy. In opting to investigate loan risk, Altunbas et al. presumably meant to measure both the willingness and liquid asset base that let a bank continue to underwrite new loans.

The model permitted Altunbas et al. to realise that when a bank expects a lower frequency of loan defaults, they respond with alacrity to shifting monetary policy environments by making more credit available.

Methodology and Data

The problem at hand – making a judgement on the risk faced by German banks versus others in the EU – is at the core of econometric research methods. For one, the problem is one of forecasting near-term performance of banks with a view to finding out whether any more failures will arise to stymie an incipient recovery from recession. Secondly, a sound solution helps both regulators and investors make better decisions about, respectively, stepping in with closer scrutiny or entrusting long-term fund placements to lower-risk banking sectors.

The general approach taken in this analysis combines findings from the data types available in the database:

• Cross-sectional analyses comparing the usual liquidity ratios relevant to banks;
• Time-series data to test whether assets and returns proved more vulnerable, all other things equal, to the onset of the global recession in the second half of 2007;
• Regression analysis to predict risk status of German banks and those in the EU as a group.

The raw data is secondary in nature, compiled and conforming to panel data since both longitudinal and cross-section analyses are possible.

Results and Discussions

Cross-Sectional Analysis

Over the period covered by the ECB database, German banks have been riskier and this is indicated, first of all, by:

• A higher rate of dissolutions (32%) and fewer active institutions overall (65.7%, see Table 1).
• An average asset base at under $4 million, compared to three times as much for banks elsewhere in Europe (Table 2).
• At $1.985 million, average loan portfolio in a German bank is just one-third the prevailing size outside the country.
• Other earning assets stood at just one-fourth the trans-European average (Table 2).

Nearly half the banks in this analysis are German (45,870 versus 40,590 elsewhere in Europe) and yet the former are distinctly smaller, as attested to by the ability to generate deposits and other sources of funds:

• Typically, German banks reported Average Deposits & Short term funding at just $2.6 million, less than one-third the European average (Table 3).
• Partly because so many institutions already reported negative balances, German banks averaged just $878 million in other funding sources, half the $1.6 billion prevailing in typical European banks (Table 3).

Other measures of strength include Tier 1 capital (equity) and reserves against losses:

• The equity measure in the ECB data presumably refers to Tier 1 capital, the fundamental criterion of financial strength to cover for unexpected losses. This comprises “core capital” (both common stock and disclosed reserves or retained earnings) and some types of non-redeemable non-cumulative preferred stock (Bank for International Settlements, 1997; BIS, 1998). On this basis, German banks typically had less than a fourth the equity-based solidity of other European banks (Table 4).
• Contingent liabilities or “off-balance sheet items” came to an average of just $400 million in German banks, around one-twelfth the $4.8 billion other European banks usually boasted. This bespeaks both significantly lower learning opportunity but also a lower risk profile from having to put the bank’s own resources at risk when third parties default on such off-balance sheet items as: “…standby … (and) irrevocable letters of credit that guarantee repayment of commercial paper or tax-exempt securities; risk participations in bankers’ acceptances; sale and repurchase agreements; and asset sales with recourse against the seller; interest rate swaps; interest rate options and currency options” (Dun & Bradstreet/All Business, 2006).

Other indicators of risk:

• Another caveat on the quality of loan portfolio of German banks is that, on average, loan loss provision (LLP) amounts to 0.58% of total loans outstanding versus just 0.55% for other European banks (Table 7). This bespeaks risk since LLP is counted as an expense item, a reserve for loans that turn sour owing to customer default, loan rescheduling or renegotiation of interest, etc. (Investopedia LLC, 2010).
• The capital (adequacy) ratio stands at 11.6 in the rest of Europe versus just half that much in Germany (Table 7). The Basel I and II covenants set varying ways to risk or weight the asset mix of a bank and do not therefore provide a uniform standard for this key bank ratio. Regardless of whether the U.S. Federal standard of 8.0 (Hummel, 2008) applies to the European situation, it is clear that German banks as a group are undercapitalized for the assets they hold.

For the rest, one finds that average net interest margin is precisely the same for Germany and the rest of Europe: 2.91% (Table 7). Since this is tantamount to gross revenue for any bank – the difference between interest received on loans made out and paid on deposits and other sources of funds (Bitner and Goddard, 1992) – one realizes that German bankers are about as perspicacious as elsewhere on the Continent when it comes to setting interest spreads. This ought to be a neutral factor were it not for the fact that German banks are saddled by many drawbacks, as this analysis has already shown.

German banks are also weaker in turning assets under their management into earnings. The ROAA metric in the database shows that pan-European banks usually generate earnings equivalent to 91% of average assets compared to just a third as much for German banks (30%, Table 7). This bespeaks a German banking sector that is relatively inefficient vis-à-vis peers in the EU (Bank Failure Resource, n.d.).

Vulnerability to Recession: 2007-2008

Perhaps there is something to be said for prudent management that verges on the ultra-cautious. When the effects of the speculation in sub-prime mortgages and the contraction in America crossed the Atlantic, the number of German banks still reporting dropped by one-fifth and average published net income went into the red (-$26.4 million, Figures 1 and 2, overleaf). On the other hand, the effects elsewhere in Europe were graver.

Regression Analysis: Germany and the Rest of Europe

Taking the viewpoint of a risk-averse investor desiring to minimize risk before taking a position in a German bank, it would be feasible to employ OLS to gain insight into the factors that impinge on earnings more than others. The first step is to select the independent variables that correlate better with published net income statements. Table 8 in the Appendices shows that higher correlation loadings are observed for: size of equity (r = 0.50), the “Other Operating Income” contribution to total revenue (r = 0.49), total deposits (r = 0.40), total loans (r = 0.39), total revenue (r = 0.38), securities held (r = 0.36), total assets (r = 0.35) and total interest income (r = 0.34).

Proceeding with the regression run filtered solely for German data, we obtain a model based on the calculated coefficients is as follows:

Net income = 1.211 + 0.251 (equity) – 0.01 (other operating income) – 1.26 (deposits) + 0.21 (loans) + 5.34 (revenue) + 0.61 (securities) + 0.05 (assets) – 4.89 (interest income)

Explaining about 33% of the total variance in the dependent variable net income, this computed model means that bank revenues may well be the single most powerful predictor of net income since the bank bottom line will rise by 1 for every increase of 5.34 standard deviations in bank revenues. Far from being a case of autocorrelation, it must be recalled that a bank can book plentiful revenues but keeping the lid on expenses and cost of funds is what translates to better net income.

Buying and holding on to securities is the second most important variable.

The model suggests that deposit growth and interest earned (chiefly from loans) are inversely related to growth in net income. The simplest explanation is that simply generating more deposit or loan business is not enough. A canny investor therefore looks at the quality and efficiency of bank management if he is to reasonably expect a sustained stream of earnings from equity participation.

All in all, this model looks robust for ANOVA results (Table 9) that test the null hypotheses H₀:2=3=4=5=6=7=0 against H₁:j0. The F value is so high as to yield a significance statistic p < 0.001. This means the non-zero beta coefficients could have occurred by chance alone fewer than once in a thousand country data compilations.

Conclusions and recommendations

Even at the level of country banking sectors, the ECB database permits a much greater range of analyses than this concededly short paper can accommodate. For now, one observes that Germans banks have been riskier for being afflicted by a higher rate of dissolutions and being distinctly smaller in point of assets, loan portfolio and other earning assets. Modelling selected variables as determinants of income, the most influential IV’s seem to be total revenue and size of securities portfolio. Nonetheless, the model captures only a fraction of the variability in net income because, as Borio and Zhu (2008) point out, market innovation and an evolving capital regulatory framework (Basel II) are material factors in bank risk behaviour, too.

References

Altman, R. C. (2009) The great crash: A geopolitical setback for the west. Web.

Altunbas, Y., Gambacorta, L. and Marques-Ibanez, D. (2009) Bank risk and monetary policy. (Working Paper Series no 1075) Frankfurt am Main: European Central Bank.

Bank Failure Resource (n.d.) Return on equity, return on assets, and bank earnings performance. 2010. Web.

Bank for International Settlements (1997) Basle capital accord: International convergence of capital measurement and capital standards (1998). Web.

BIS (1998) Instruments eligible for inclusion in Tier 1 capital. Web.

Bitner, J. W. & Goddard, R. A. (1992) Successful bank asset/liability management: a guide to the future beyond GAP. Hoboken (NJ), John Wiley & Sons.

Borio C. & Zhu H. (2008) Capital regulation, risk-taking and monetary policy: a missing link in the transmission mechanism? BIS Working Papers, No. 268.

Dun & Bradstreet/All Business (2006) Barron’s Educational Series: Off-balance sheet items. Web.

Ehrman, M., Chatelain, J.-B., Generale, A., Martinez-Pages, J., Vermeulen, P. & Worms, A. (2003) Monetary policy transmission in the Euro area – evidence from micro data on banks and firms. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1, pp. 731-742

Harper, C. and Kirchfeld, A. (2010) Obama proposal to curb banks dominates, divides Davos debates. Web.

Hummel, W. F. (2008) Banking basics. Web.

Investopedia LLC (2010) Loan loss provision. Web.

Recession.org (2009) FDIC bank failure & watch list. Web.

Sharif, A. & Cochrane, L. (2009) Dubai World seeks to delay debt payments as default risk soars. Web.

Quantitative Research Techniques And Designs Definition

Quantitative research is one way to conduct a scholarly investigation with the help of certain qualitative characteristics enabling the researchers to make certain empirical conclusions and observe particular tendencies in the response of participants to the experiment they have designed for them. The first issue to be discussed in connection with the quantitative research techniques and designs is the definition given by Blumer (1984) stating that research techniques are “the specific manipulative and fact-finding operations which are used to yield data about the social world”.

It is also important to study the notion of quantitative research methods that can be applied in the course of work discussed. The initial stage to be taken is to state the research question that will guide the researcher on the whole way of studying the matter of his/her interest. All experiments, questionnaires, or interviews will be directed at obtaining relevant information to receive answers to the question. As in the case of Tansley et al. (2007), the research questions were formulated in the form of a career decision-making form, the career exploratory intentions scale, the career exploration activities scale, etc. They all were aimed at finding out to what messages the participants would be more responsive to gain-framed, loss-framed, or control ones (Tansley et al., 2007). This effort was aimed at proving or rejecting the hypothesis that “written persuasive messages” would be the most efficient way to influence the conscience of the respondents.

Proceeding to the next stages, it is necessary to estimate the population and sample for the research. According to the opinion of Black (1999), the population is “any group that shares a set of common traits” – in the research of Tansley et al. (2007) it is a pilot sample of 12 persons and the main sample of 127 participants who were students of psychology courses in a Southern community college. Instrumentation of the research is another matter of concern, being a major tool for making and evaluating judgment further on in the course of the research. In the discussed case the main instruments were the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (applied to measure career decision-making self-efficacy), the Career Decision-Making Outcome Expectations Scale (to measure career decision-making outcome expectations), the Career Exploratory Intentions Scale (to measure career decision-making intentions), the Career Exploration Activities Scale and the demographic questionnaire (Tansley et al, 2007). Thus, it is possible to state that the approach to designing instruments for the present research was comprehensive and over-grasping, ensuring the instrumentation reliability and validity.

Coming to the qualitative design section, it is necessary to admit that the research discussed was experimental as all participants took part in filling in the questionnaires, and only those who accomplished the work fully were considered as the providers of credible data. It was not single-subject research as the sample of 127 participants was rather heterogeneous: the sample included representatives of different ethnic and racial groups, people from a different social background with the commonplace of studies and approximately common age (Tansley et al., 2007).

The last but not the least element of any quantitative research is the way of quantitative data analysis. Creswell (2003) offers the following procedure of analysis: reporting data, discussing the potential bias, discuss the way to represent variables with all potential deviations, estimate the procedures to evaluate statistical data, and finding the way to test the hypothesis. It is also essential to define the measure of generalizability of data and its significance.

As it usually happens in the case with qualitative research techniques and designs, the data is usually represented in the form of charts and tables (e.g. pie charts or frequency graphs), as it is done in the case of Tansley et al. One should not diminish the importance of these methods of representation because of the importance of qualitative results.

Qualitative Research Techniques and Designs

Among the research methods commonly applied in the sphere of qualitative research one should consider the findings of Lodico et al. (2006) who state that “qualitative research approaches collect data through observations, interviews, and document analysis and summarize the findings primarily through narrative or verbal means”. The researchers admit that the best tools for conducting qualitative research are case studies, ethnographic studies, grounded theory, and phenomenological studies (Lodico et al., 2006).

Qualitative research techniques are different from quantitative research ones because of the data on which they rely and which they operate in the course of research. On the example of the phenomenological study of Conceicao (2006), it is possible to define the main stages and elements of the qualitative research procedure that have to be taken into consideration. First of all, such research is usually grounded on theory – in this case, one sees the clear connection of the researcher’s interest with the growing digitalization of education and shifting roles of educators in the whole educational environment (Conceicao, 2006).

In the present research conducted by the researcher, interviews and observations were applied as the major tool for collecting relevant information on the efficiency of online studying – the sample consisted of 10 faculty members who shared their experiences on online studies and expressed their opinion on its constructiveness.

Speaking about the strategies for data analysis, it is first of all necessary to note that the main effort of the study was aimed at testing the preliminary hypothesis about the growing efficiency of online learning that excludes any live communication of the educator with the student (Conceicao, 2006). Thus, all interviews, discussions, and considerations were targeted at finding out the core reasons for this tendency, the impressions of educators about both forms of teaching, and their proposals as for the changes necessary to be introduced. The credibility of results may be supported by the level of qualification of educators chosen for the study, 3 of who were full professors and 7 – associate professors with a different range of work experience (Conceicao, 2006). Transferability of results can also be tested and supported by the fact that the scientific grounding of the research was constructed soundly and the literature review proved the broadness and general applicability of results.

Data description was precise and detailed, thus allowing speaking about the proved hypothesis about online learning as the way to enrich the scope of educational opportunities and to stipulate the main directives for further actions. The chosen research design – the phenomenological study – proved to be highly efficient in the context of the present research problems, which may be also supported by the research conducted by Groenewald (2004). In his study, Groenewald (2004) explored the origin of phenomenology as a type of research approach, outlined the main stages of conducting a phenomenological study emphasizing the data-gathering methods, the necessity to keep to ethical standards, and ensuring the results’ validity.

However, in the context of discussing the data credibility and transferability, it is important to enumerate the most common disadvantages of online teaching – the research design requires including the information about limitations of the study that have to be taken into consideration alongside the results of the study. The main disadvantages of online learning are first of all the high price of education and the decreasing number of teachers’ vacancies in a country, namely outsourcing of jobs in the sphere, and the inability to organize group work in the context of online learning (Encyclopedia: Online Tutoring: Real-time tutoring over the internet, 2005).

Reporting and Contextualizing Research for Social Change

The first method of synthesizing data used by Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) is the amount of information dedicated to the GLBT issue in educational resources. After finding out the approximate equality of data the authors investigate the number of illustrations and thematic categories to which separate attention is paid. The researchers are mainly interested in the way GLBT people are portrayed, what GLBT topics are excluded and what treatment they receive in theoretical sources. Basing their judgment on these findings, Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) make a conclusion that GLBT people are still discriminated against and segregated by others, they are portrayed as victims, thus causing the emergence of negative stereotypes; however, much is being done on eliminating exclusion, the GLBT topics are discussed on a more open basis and racial, ethnical or other characteristics that used to aggravate treatment of GLBT people and their discrimination are being gradually erased.

In general, it is highly important to consider the initial purpose the authors pursued by conducting the present research – their purpose may indicate the main implications of the research better than the results they achieved. Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) stated at the very beginning that their prime aim was to investigate the way the issues of GLBT people are addressed in educational literature, the way they are designed and affect people in the course of forming stereotypes and opinions of the common public about the GLBT representatives.

The journal in which the article was published is titled Journal of Teacher Education, thus it is mainly aimed at forming adequate skills in educators so that they should be able to address the problem of GLBT people treatment and break the stereotypes that have been historically formed in the minds of traditional people. However, it is commonly known that the issues of treating the non-traditional orientation are a complex problem and should be addressed in a complex way. Sexual minorities are first of all a cultural phenomenon, which can be supported by the following information:

“Sexual minority cultures frequently and consistently influence the broader culture at large, including straight culture. Yale sociology professor Joshua Gamson argues that the tabloid talk show genre, popularized by Oprah Winfrey in the 1980s provided much needed, high impact media visibility for sexual minorities and did more to make gay culture mainstream than any other development of the 20th century” (Encyclopedia: LGBT Communities: LGBT Culture, 2005).

The heterogeneity of the concept supposes the particular interest in the subject by journals specializing in Psychology, Sociology, or even Medicine, as the GLBT problems are closely connected with the suicide rates and mental health problems, especially with GLBT adolescents. The article of Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) pays much attention to multiple peculiarities of theoretical addressing the problem of GLBT educational literature, this is why it is possible to say that it is likely to facilitate a change in the social perception of GLBT people – in case of correct construction of the educational process making people acquainted with the basic information about non-traditional sexual orientation it will be possible to avoid the majority of stereotypes and mistreatment of such people. Besides, the possibility of an institutional change is also evident – it is surely unavoidable to eliminate the formation of stereotypes in the representatives of the educational sphere; hence, people who have to teach their students to avoid stereotypes cannot help their formation in their system of attitudes. Consequently, the problem Macgillivray and Jennings (2008) address may be solved in several ways, in which the article may be highly helpful.

Research may be conducted in several ways depending on the subject matter being addressed. The researcher has to first estimate the awaited results, the theoretical field in which he or she is going to conduct research and to think about the best way to organize a scientific activity that would fit the estimated goals best of all. Some kinds of research cannot eliminate quantitative data evaluation and include considerations of statistics, numeric data processing, its arrangement in charts and graphs, and making empirical inferences out of these figures. Qualitative data research usually contains more theoretical considerations and may not include any numeric data but will contain only theoretical research.

The process of synthesizing data and making conclusions as well as general recommendations for further research is highly important as well because it is the logical ending of the research showing whether the goals were achieved by the researcher or not. For this reason, it is essential that the researcher chose the best suitable way of synthesizing data and making inferences from findings, which will show the scientific importance of the research and the way it may be applied in life.

References

1. Blumer, M. (1999). Sociological research methods. Transaction Publishers.
2. Conceição, S. C. O. (2006). Faculty lived experiences in the online environment. Adult Education Quarterly, 57, 26–45.
3. Creswell, J. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches. SAGE.
4. Encyclopedia: LGBT Communities: LGBT Culture (2005). Nation Master.Com.
5. Encyclopedia: Online tutoring: Real-time tutoring over internet. (2005). Nation Master.Com.
6. Groenewald, T. (2004). A phenomenological research design illustrated. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 3 (1).
7. Lodico, M., Spaulding, D., & Voegtle, K. (2010). Methods in educational research: From theory to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
8. Macgillivray, I. K., & Jennings, T. (2008). A content analysis exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender topics in foundations of education textbooks. Journal of Teacher Education, 59, 170–188.
9. Tansley, D. P., Jome, L. M., Hasse, R. F., & Martens, M. P. (2007). The effects of message framing on college students’ career decision making. Journal of Career Assessment, 15, 301–316.
10. Thomas R. B. (1999). Doing quantitative research in the social sciences: an integrated approach to research design, measurement and statistics. SAGE.

Mars Exploration Mission: Martian Atmosphere Studies

Outline

Since the discovery of the existence of other physical bodies in the universe, scientists have spent most of their time in the laboratories looking for ways and means of critically studying these bodies. For that reason equipments have been made and signals placed in them to make it possible for the scientist to perceive what is taking place in the planets. One of the planets that raises curiosity of exploration is the fourth planet mars. With its closeness to the earth, scientist are doing all they can to probably make it a second home for human beings. Studies have been done and others are still being done to find out the many other mysteries of the planet.

Introduction To Mars

Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system from the sun. It is one planet that has gained interest of scientists who have continued to explore it. The planet as observed from the earth appears to be red or orange. Its brightness varies due to its rotation. It can also disappear from being seen from the earth depending on the position of the sun. Mars can be viewed on a telescope to observe some of its prominent features. From the various researches conducted, it has been discovered that the red color of mars is due to presence of iron oxide. Due to its closeness to the earth, scientists usually navigate it with the aim of finding out how possible it is for living creatures to survive on it. The possibility of past existence of living creatures on mars is not yet clear, but mythically, it is believed that, there are intelligent beings called the Martians that send signals to the earth. Even though there are conditions that suggest life can be supported on mars, the conditions cannot allow the continuous existence of life. Studies are still underway to ascertain if ever was living things on mars. Just like the earth, mars have physical features like the moon, mountains, volcanoes, valleys, deserts and ice. Mars has been referred to as the red planet because it is red in color. It was also named ‘mars’ after the roman god of war.

Evolution

Studies suggest that, mars once had a magnetic field and liquid water and it is believed a massive satellite may have caused tidal heating that melted its interiors, thus generating a magnetic field. This magnetic field protected the Martian atmosphere from the wind leaving the water to settle on the surface. The orbit of mars could have decayed due to tidal forces causing the whole crust to move to a more stable configuration, where the impact basin was found at the North Pole and the volcanoes close to the equator. With no tidal heating from the satellite, the magnetic field could not survive. The impact of the solar wind heating on the surface hinders the reformation of the atmosphere. During those stages of active chemical reactions and volcanic eruptions, life could be sustained on mars, but it is not clear whether there were any creatures or plants. Currently there is little evidence of eruptions and most of the volcanoes are extinct which make life impossible.

Characteristics of mars

In comparison to the earth, the radius of mars is half that of the earth, less dense and its surface area is lesser compared to the earths dry land. Compared to mercury, it has a lesser force of gravity due to its less density. Mars is reported to have volcanic plateaus and blue basins and its surface is mainly composed of basalt (Adams, 2007). Other studies reveal that, the surface is rich in silica which is similar to the andesitic rocks and iron (III) oxide. The magnetic field of mars faded away around four billion years ago because of the plate tectonics that took place on mars. Mars is about 1480km in radius with its interiors consist of iron sulfide which is partly fluid. The core which is covered by the silicate mantle contains inactive volcanoes and tectonic features. The geological history of mars can be described by the presence of epochs; the Noachian epoch is the oldest and is responsible for the formation of Tharsis bulge volcanic upland, the Hesperian epoch led to the formation of extensive lava plains, the Amazonian epoch led to the formation of Olympus Mons.

The soil on this planet contains minerals such as potassium, magnesium, chloride and sodium. These minerals contain the nutrients that can make living organisms to grow but due to the low atmospheric pressure on the surface of mars, there if no liquid water. However, ice is found in large quantities with the presence of two polar ice cups, one in the south and the other in the north. The geographical features of mars are characterized by the presence of several volcanoes like Olympus Mons which is the highest mountain on the solar system. These mountains are currently inactive and show little signs of erupting again. A number of craters have also been found each with a minimum diameter of five kilometers. The craters were formed many years ago when there was a still rapid chemical reaction on the planet. Canyon have been found on mars which include; Valles Marineris which is the largest of all, the Grand Canyon and the Ma’adin Vallis. The existence of these canyons promotes the evidence that mars once had liquid water on the surface.

Seven cave entrances have been found and named after their seven founders’ namely Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abby Nikki and Jeanne. They are commonly referred to as the seven sisters (Adams, 2007). The caves have been estimated to be about seventy three to ninety six meters deep. However, due to the darkness on the lower surface, it is suspected that they may be deeper. This feature gives the scientist hope of finding living creatures and liquid water in them. The caves are yet to be explored extensively due to inadequate technology. The scientists hope to advance in this area and bring us more detailed information about the caves. The two polar ice caps of mars are Planum Boreum in the northern part and the Planum Australe in the southern region.

The atmosphere of mars is thin due to the absence of the magnetosphere that makes the wind to easily merge with the Martian ionosphere. The gravity on mars is thirty eight percent of the earth’s surface gravity. The concentration of carbon dioxide is ninety five percent, nitrogen is three percent and argon is one point six percent. There are little traces of oxygen and water. Methane has also been recorded to be present in mars but due to its unstable nature, its presence is an evidence of its recent occurrence.

The Martian canals are some of the physical features that have been found to exist on the planet. They were discovered by an Italian astrologer Giovanni Schiaparelli in the nineteenth century using a resolution of telescopes. They were seen to be long straight lines on the surface (Rapp, 2007). The scientist gave them names according to the famous rivers of the earth. Due to these observations, it was believed that mars had water bodies and vegetations.

Climate

The climatic seasons on Mars are similar to those experienced on the earth surface. This has been due to the similar tilts of rotation that the two planets have. The lengths of the Martian seasons are double in comparison with the earths. This is because of the fact that the earth is closer to the sun than Mars. The seasons in the southern hemisphere are extreme compared to those in the north. What contributes to this is that, Mars is always closer to the perihelion during summer and closer to aphelion during winter in the southern hemisphere. Large dust storms have been recorded in mars which occur when the planet is closest to the sun and suspected to be the reason for the high increase in global temperature. Research has revealed that, the storms may occupy either a small area or even the entire planet.

Rotation

Mars is approximately two hundred and thirty million kilometers away from the sun and it therefore takes six hundred and eighty seven earth days to rotate around its orbit. The axial tilt of mars is 25.9 degrees which is similar to that of the earth. The orbital eccentricity of mars is about 0.09 and its cycle is 96,000 earth years (Adams, 2007). It has been predicted that, the distance between earth and mars will decrease in the next 25,000 years.

Phobos and Deimos

Mars has two moons; Phobos and Deimos, which rotates closer to the planet. These moons were discovered in 1887 by Asaph Hall where names Phobos and Deimos stand for panic and terror respectively. They are believed to be the names of Ares’s, god of war, to mean two sons that accompanied him to war and Ares was mars according to the Romans. Compared to the moons on the earth, Phoebes rises in the west and sets in the east. It rises after every eleven hours while Deimos rises slowly from the east and takes almost three earth days to set and a longer time to rise again. The orbit of the Phoebes is below the synchronous altitude because it is lowered by the tidal forces. Hence, it is predicted that, in the next fifty million years, it will either crush on the surface of mars or break to form a ring around the planet.

Survival on mars

Due to the inability of the planet to contain liquid water, living creatures cannot survive on mars. However, in the past there were traces that proved flow of liquid water which would have made the creatures to survive. Mars has a very low concentration of oxygen, a factor that may limit survival of living creatures that depend on oxygen for respiration (Rapp, 2007). The absence of volcanic activity on the planet hinders the rotation of minerals within and at the surface of the earth. There is little transfer of heat on the surface of mars with insufficient atmospheric pressure and a poor insulation against the solar wind and other attacks. Mars also experiences dust storms which are very gigantic and can hinder the survival of life.

Evidences reveal that, Mars was once habitable by the living creatures yet it is not clear whether there were any living creatures on the planet. The presence of such nutrients as potassium, chloride, magnesium and sodium proves the ability of plants to grow. However, in order for them to survive, they had to be protected from the ultraviolet light. Methane that was recently discovered is an evidence of possible eruptions which is an indication of life on the planet.

Exploration of the planet

Most of the explorations to mars have failed for reasons that were related to loss of communication or technical complications. The first ever successful trip was NASA’s mariner 4 that was launched in 1964, in 1971 mariner 9 orbited mars and it was the first space probe to move around another planet. Mars 2 and mars 3 from the mars probe program were the first soviet probes to successfully land on the planet. These objects were launched in 1971, but when they were almost landing, they lost contact (Adams, 2007). In 1975, NASA launched the Viking program that had two orbiters with landers which successfully landed in 1976. Viking 1 remained in operation for six years and Viking two for three years. These landers displayed the first colors of the planet and mapped its surface which made the images recorded be useful up to date.

Phobos 1 and 2 were released to explore mars with the aim of studying the two moons that were discovered. Unfortunately, Phobos 1 lost its network and Phobos two failed when it was just about to release two landers on the surface of Phobos moon. The mars global surveyor was launched in 1996; it successfully finished its mapping mission in 2001 but lost its contact in its third extended program. A month after the launch of the surveyor, the mars pathfinder was launched which had a Sojourner that landed in Ares Vallis during the summer season of 1997. Research shows that, many images were sent back to earth which made it receive a lot of publicity. Launched in august 2007, phoenix is the most recent NASA object to be sent (Rapp, 2007). It landed on the North Polar Region in May 2008 and had a microscopic camera and a robotic arm. These equipments were installed with the aim of collecting more vivid images from the planet with the aim accomplishing it in November 2008 when the engineers could not connect with the craft in space.

With availability of the orbiters and lander, it has become convenient to study astronomy from the Martian sky. The earth and the moon are visible, Phobos appears to be a third the size of the full moon and Deimos takes the shape of a star and appears brighter than the earth. Other objects that can be observed from mars include meteors and auroras. The actual color of mars is butterscotch yet it normally appears as reddish or orange due to the color of the atmosphere on the planet.

Mars and culture

Due to the reddish appearance of the planet, it has been associated with war. It has been named Nergal by the Babylonians after their deity of war, fire and destruction. To the Romans, Mars is the god of war. The Greeks also called the planet ‘pyroeis’ meaning fiery and the Hindus ‘mangala’ or ‘angaraka’ in Sanskrit who is a war god with the signs of Scorpio and Aries. The Egyptians call it ‘horus the red’, the Hebrews, ma’adim, ‘the one who blushes’ and as the fire star by the Koreans, Japanese, the Vietnamese and the Chinese (Adams, 2007). Mars is therefore worshipped by the many communities of the world who consider him as a god that can intervene on their behalf to give them victory in times of war.

The symbol of mars is usually a circle with an arrow from behind to act as a symbol of shield and spear used by the roman god of war and also a patron of fighters. In biology, it is a symbol of the male gender, an element of iron in alchemy and also the main element in the planet that causes its color to be red. In earlier years of the nineteenth century, there rose a speculation that mars was populated with a group of intelligent beings called the Martians that send signals to the earth. These speculations have created a lot of anxieties among the people who do not know what to believe.

Mars has also been a major attraction to the fiction world due to its red color and the speculation that there exist intelligent beings. In one of the scenario, it is ‘the war of the worlds’ in which the Martians invade the planet earth in order to secure their home which is mars (Rapp, 2007). Others include; the ‘Martian chronicles’, ‘Marvin the Martian’ and ‘Gulliver’s travels’. These and many more are the fictions that were written from the mystery of mars.

Future of Mars

Scientists are not yet through with their mission to explore the planet. There is much curiosity within them to make more discoveries about the planet and are determined to make people live on the planet by making the unfavorable conditions to be favorable. With the improving technology, scientists are applying similar technology to their equipments that will make the work of exploring the planet more convenient. NASA has announced the launch of a robotic mission by the name Maven in 2013 that will collect more information on the atmospheric pressure of mars.

In her vision for space exploration, the United States has launched the manned mars exploration which is part of her long term goal to explore the planet by sending human beings there by 2037. The ‘mars science laboratory’ is carrying out experiments to drill and study the rocks found on mars to find out their chemical compositions (Adams, 2007). It has also been discovered that there are more features on the planet that are yet to be identified. With intensive explorations, scientists hope to identify and study them.

The reports that have been collected concerning the planet have given different views which may be a bit confusing to the natural mind. Due to the different scientists carrying out the explorations and the different signals they use for observation, the results have always differed. With more explorations being made and others yet to be launched, we expect to receive more reports that may reveal something more different than what we have always known. With the advanced technology, orbiters, rovers and Landers will be made to be even more sophisticated. The future studies may hence give us more accurate pictures of the planet and the detailed information concerning its composition and make up. More scientist and equipments need to be employed in this continual exploration to clear the doubts and confusions in people’s minds concerning the planet. Recent improved technology need to be used in exploring mars so that valuable information can be obtained about it, in order to get a better understanding based on evidence that will be provided. (Adams, 2007)

References

Adams L. Encyclopedia of the solar system: Academic Press, 2007 pp23-34.

Rapp D. Human Missions to Mars: Springer, 2007 pp12-26.