How solar winds stripped the Martian atmosphere and changed a planet forever
Once a world of rivers and lakes, Mars is now a frozen desert. This video explores how NASA's MAVEN mission captured the process of atmospheric sputtering, revealing how solar radiation physically knocks a planet's atmosphere into the void.
The MAVEN mission has documented a phenomenon known as atmospheric sputtering, where high-energy particles from the Sun strike Mars's upper atmosphere. This impact dislodges atoms and molecules, sending them into space. Because Mars lacks a global magnetic field, it remains uniquely vulnerable to this erosion, a process that accelerates during solar storms.
By analyzing isotopes of argon—a noble gas that does not react with surface rocks—scientists determined that approximately 6 and 5 percent of the argon ever present in the Martian atmosphere has been lost to space. This loss of gas, driven by solar wind and radiation, played a central role in transforming Mars from a potentially habitable environment into the cold, dry world we observe today.
Source: Is This How Mars Lost Its Atmosphere?
