New Insight Into Mars’ Vanished Water Billions of years ago, Mars was likely a much wetter world.
Now, thanks to MAVEN — short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN — scientists are a step closer to answering that question.
A New Chapter In Understanding Mars’ Habitability The confirmation of atmospheric sputtering is more than just a technical achievement.
It directly supports the idea that this process was a primary mechanism behind Mars’ atmospheric erosion after the planet lost its magnetic field.
Without this protective shield, the planet’s atmosphere became increasingly vulnerable to the solar wind, leading to the loss of water-stabilizing conditions on the surface.
A significant step has been taken by NASA’s MAVEN mission to solve the mystery of Mars’ vanishing atmosphere after ten years of orbital research. In order to confirm atmospheric sputtering’s role in removing the Red Planet’s atmosphere and potentially causing the loss of water on its surface, scientists have finally made a direct observation of this elusive phenomenon.
New Information Regarding the Lost Water on Mars.
Mars was probably a considerably wetter planet billions of years ago. MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, has brought scientists one step closer to answering the question of where the water went and why, despite geological features showing the presence of liquid water on its surface.
The process of atmospheric sputtering, which occurs when high-energy charged particles, like heavy ions from the solar wind, collide with Mars’ atmosphere and violently knock out neutral atoms and molecules into space, provides the solution.
According to Shannon Curry, principal investigator of the MAVEN mission at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), it’s similar to throwing a cannonball into a swimming pool. In this instance, the cannonball is the heavy ions that quickly crash into the atmosphere, splattering neutral atoms and molecules out. “.”.
The ratio of lighter to heavier argon isotopes in the upper atmosphere is one example of how evidence for sputtering has previously been deduced from isotope data, but this new observation is the first to show the process actually occurring.
Real Time Capture of the Elusive Phenomenon.
The MAVEN team had to coordinate data collection from three of the spacecraft’s primary instruments—the Magnetometer, the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, and the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer—in order to directly observe sputtering. Years of orbital planning and data collection were necessary for these instruments to collect simultaneous measurements at low altitudes from Mars’ dayside and nightside.
A comprehensive map of sputtered argon particles across various Martian atmosphere regions was produced by researchers thanks to their cooperative efforts. The information identified regions where solar wind particles slammed into the atmosphere, causing neutral atoms, especially argon, to splash out at high altitudes.
Surprisingly, the group found that sputtering is occurring four times faster than anticipated and that the rate increases during solar storms. Sputtering probably contributed to atmospheric loss even more dramatically in Mars’ early history, when the Sun was much more active.
A New Chapter in the Study of Habitability on Mars.
Beyond its technical accomplishment, atmospheric sputtering has been confirmed. It unequivocally backs up the theory that, following the loss of Mars’ magnetic field, this process was the main cause of the planet’s atmospheric erosion. Water-stabilizing conditions on the surface were lost as a result of the planet’s atmosphere becoming more susceptible to the solar wind in the absence of this shield.
