NASA News: Solar Winds Stripped Life Out of Mars' Atmosphere
As Earth continues to await for news regarding the possibility of life on Mars, NASA has just announced some important details that might sadden earthlings.
Scientists believe that in the past, Mars boasted of an atmosphere that may have been just as thick or even thicker than what Earth has. While it is known that the air on the planet has started to leak for some time, new readings from NASA'S Mars Atmosphere Volatile Evolution mission (MAVEN) reveal that the planet may not be as strong as some believe it to be.
According to The Telegraph, NASA said, "The sun destroyed the atmosphere of Mars by robbing the planet of what might once have been an environment replete with water and the conditions for life."
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The new readings suggest that solar storms hitting Mars are the reason for the upper atmosphere of the planet being stripped away. Particles of solar winds and storms bombarding the planet make the atmosphere leak away more quickly than usual.
Dr. Bruce M. Jakosky, a scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado and lead investigator of the Maven mission, said the new finding is another key addition to the data that proves Mars was once a habitable planet with a warm atmosphere, some lakes, and even probably an ocean that covered the northern part.
Jakosky and his team provided detailed explanations in four papers published on Thursday in the journal Science, wherein they accounted how air disappeared over the years on Mars, with water largely disappearing too.
The studies reveal that while solar storms do not happen every day around Mars, they are capable of affecting the planet the way a tsunami hits the surface of Earth.
One of the more interesting finds that MAVEN's tools captured, which also surprised the group of scientists assigned to the mission, are occasional ultraviolet aurora lights glowing on the planet's skies. One of the episodes lasted for a few days in December 2014.
