Martian surface turned to dust due to solar winds.
After extensive scientific research conducted on the Red Planet, NASA just announced a series of astonishing discoveries. Solar winds turned Mars to dust, so concluded the MAVEN spacecraft.
During a press conference set of Thursday, NASA pointed out several key facts about Mars. According to the readings relayed by MAVER, a couple of billion years ago, Mars was a lush and fertile planet, closely resembling Earth. Scientist managed to reconstruct an image of the bygone Garden of Eden from Mars.
Data collected so far come to strengthen the theory about Mars’s atmosphere. It seem that, long ago, Mars had a wet atmosphere and the planet was warm. The atmosphere was very thick, capable of conserving any number of life forms.
Apart from the atmosphere and cozy temperature, the surface of Mars was literally drowning in water. Images taken by the probes all over the years suggest that Mars had oceans and many flowing rivers.
So, how come a planet that bears a striking resemblance to our own could have fallen into decay? Was it the wind of change? Well, yes, according to the scientists.
Over the course of billions of years, solar flares, emanating from the sun, have stripped ion particles from Mars’s atmosphere. When the atmosphere was bombarded by the little flashy bullets, coming from the Sun, it would literally lose vital gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. Without these two gases, a planet is incapable to sustain life on its surface.
MAVEN’s measurements placed the planet’s time of death somewhere in its the early years.
But how about our own cozy planet? It seems that due to frequent solar flares, Earth is also losing ions from its atmosphere. Scientists said that there is no reason to panic because Earth is not only protected by its atmosphere but by its magnetic field as well.
Among other scientifical marvels brought back by MAVEN are the auroras. Yes, Mars is also capable of throwing out a show of light, just like Earth. Typically, auroras are formed when charged particles emanating from the Sun come into collision with Earth’s magnetic field. The particles then travel to the poles where they clash with other gases found in our atmosphere.
The physics principles behind auroras on Mars are slightly different. Scientists have theorized that the green lights form when charged particles from the Sun come in close contact with the remnants of Mars’s magnetic field.
The probe has been of Martian soil since September 2014 and it is part of a project aimed at studying Mars’s natural history.
Image source:www.wikimedia.org
