WASHINGTON, EU.- NASA released new findings on Mars during a conference in the auditorium of the James Webb in Washington that was broadcast live on the Internet.
The report has to do with the work of the MAVEN probe launched on 18 November 2013 and agreed to the Martian orbit on 22 September 2014. Since then, the spacecraft remains in orbit around the fourth planet of our solar system .
MAVEN main mission to study the Martian atmosphere to find out why in a period of a billion years, Mars became a desert and rocky planet, after being very similar to Earth?
The press conference was headed by Michael Meyer, Program Director of Mission Mars Exploration with Bruce Jakosky, Jasper Halekas, Yaxue Dong and Dave Brain, all part of the Maven initiative (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution).
The US Agency revealed that the atmosphere of the ‘red planet’ transition influenced the climate of the Martian atmosphere early, hot and humid that could have supported life to the cold barren planet is today.
The data MAVEN allowed scientists to determine the speed at which the Martian atmosphere loses steam by the solar wind.
The results also revealed that erosion Mars’s atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms.
“Mars seems to have had a thick atmosphere warm enough to support liquid water, a key ingredient for half life as know today, “said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Understanding what happened to the Martian atmosphere will tell us the dynamics and evolution of any planetary atmosphere. Learning what can cause changes in the environment of a planet is a key question being addressed in the journey of NASA to Mars, “he said.
The measurements indicate that MAVEN probe blasts solar wind steal the red planet’s atmosphere at a speed of 100 grams per second. “Like stealing coins from a cash register every day, the loss becomes significant at the time,” said Bruce Jakosky of MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
” We have seen that atmospheric erosion increases significantly during solar storms, so the loss was much higher billions of years ago, when the sun was young and more active, “he said.
In March 2015, a series of dramatic solar storms hit the Martian atmosphere and found MAVEN gas loss accelerated. The combination of higher loss rates and increased solar storms in the past suggests that the loss of the atmosphere escaped into space was the cause of an important process in changing the Martian climate.
solar wind consists of a stream of particles, mostly protons and electrons flowing from the sun’s atmosphere at a speed of about a million miles per hour. The magnetic field which carries the solar wind can generate an electric field like an immense turbine. This electric field accelerates the gas of electrically charged atoms called ions in the upper atmosphere of Mars and shoots into space.
MAVEN has been examining how the solar wind causes the ultraviolet atmospheric gas top is ejected into space causing a dramatic loss
The new results indicate that loss is experienced in three different regions of the Red Planet. by the “tail”, where solar wind flows behind Mars above the Martian poles in a “polar pen” and an extended cloud of gas surrounding Mars.
The team found that 75% of ions escaping from the Martian atmosphere come the tail region and 25% in the region of the pen.
The investigation revealed that the oldest regions on Mars are signs abundance of water valleys carved by rivers and mineral deposits only formed in the presence of liquid water.
These features led scientists to believe that billions of years ago, Mars’ atmosphere was much more dense and hot enough to form rivers, lakes and oceans may even liquid water.
Recently, researchers observed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter seasonal appearance of hydrated salts indicating salty liquid water on Mars.
However, the current Martian atmosphere is too cold and thin to support life or large regions of liquid water on the planet’s surface.
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NASA opened the possibility that the Internet made public questions through social networks #AskNASA.
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