It’s thought that billions of years ago Mars had a thick protective atmosphere that allowed it to be warm and wet – and possibly sustain life. “Learning what may cause modifications to a planet’s setting from one that would host microbes on the floor to at least one that doesn’t is necessary to know, and is a key query that’s being addressed in NASA’s journey to Mars”. Many believe it’s only a matter of time before NASA’s rovers find a few sort of ancient microbial life on Mars.
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The findings are based off analysis of the first six months of data collected from instruments aboard the MAVEN spacecraft. According to data from MAVEN, this happens at a rate of 100 grams per second.
The goal of the mission is to study what types of radiation are coming from the sun and cosmic sources and the impact on gases in Mars’ upper atmosphere.
“The Maven mission is trying to answer this question of atmospheric escape”. Because it’s protective magnetic cover was stripped off by solar winds, the planet has transformed into a dry and arid one, greatly reducing its habitability.
NASA is planning a mission to Mars by 2030 after recently saying that water flows intermittently on the planet.
There is no magnetic field on Mars, so when the solar wind reaches the Red Planet, the atmosphere gets stripped away.
“Wind grabs ions and strips them from the planet”, Bruce Jakosky of NASA’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics said during the announcement. Previously, scientists using the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed the seasonal appearance of hydrated salts indicative of the presence of liquid water on Mars, but the current atmosphere of the planet is too cold and too thin to support lakes or rivers on the surface. The MAVEN mission was launched to Mars in November 2013.
“We think that loss to space, that stripping of the solar wind was an important process in the changing climate of Mars”, Jakosky said. This loss becomes significant over time, and increases significantly during solar storms. This huge blast of plasma complete with its own magnetic field hit Mars on March 8.
“However, where this type of aurora on Earth is driven by magnetism of the poles, the authors suspect that Mars’ aurora may be driven by the remnant magnetic field of the crust, creating a more even and diffuse aurora”, the study said.
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Researchers also said the erosion of the Martian atmosphere “increases significantly” during solar storms.
