NASA spacecraft finds solar ‘cannonballs’ may have stripped Mars of its water — proving decades-old theory
This artist's concept depicts the early Martian environment (right) with liquid water and a thicker atmosphere versus the cold, dry environment seen today (left).(Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)After nearly a decade in orbit, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has, for the first time, directly observed the process that scientists had long suspected was responsible for stripping Mars of its atmosphere.
The findings, published May 28 in the journal Science Advancescould help answer a longstanding question about how Mars transformed from a potentially habitable world with rivers and lakes into the mostly-frozen desert we see today.
Although Mars today is dry, cold and virtually airless, its surface is carved with unmistakable evidence of a wetter past. Features resembling ancient river valleys, lake beds, and minerals that only form in the presence of water point to long-lived lakes,...
