Atmosphere of Mars energy to escape the planet. In this process the light isotope of carbon (C) is most likely to leave the atmosphere. Hence, the carbon dioxide left in the atmosphere would be enriched with the heavy isotope (C). This higher level of the heavy isotope is what was recently found by the "Curiosity" rover that sits on the surface of Mars. The atmosphere of Mars is enriched considerably with the noble gas argon, in comparison to the atmosphere of the other planets within the Solar System. Unlike carbon dioxide, the argon content of the atmosphere does not condense, and hence the
Noble gas compound they are less strongly attracted to the positively charged nucleus. This results in an ionization energy low enough to form stable compounds with the most electronegative elements, fluorine and oxygen, and even with less electronegative elements such as nitrogen and carbon under certain circumstances. When the family of noble gases was first identified at the end of the nineteenth century, none of them was observed to form any compounds and it was initially believed that they were all "inert gases" (as they were then known) which could not form compounds. With the development of atomic theory in the early twentieth