VIDEO: An artist’s concept shows the transition from an ancient, habitable Mars capable of supporting liquid water on its surface to the cold desert world of today. Image Credit: Michael Lentz/NASA Goddard Conceptual Image Lab
TORONTO – You’re standing on a rocky outcrop, flowing water at your feet, a blue sky above you with a pale, distant sun peeking through the clouds.
And you’re on Mars.
This is the picture that scientists believe to have once existed on the red planet.
But how Mars transitioned from a planet with a thick atmosphere and oceans of liquid water to one that is seemingly barren is not understood.
NASA’s latest mission to Mars seeks to answer varying questions as to the evolution of the planet’s climate.
Mars has long fascinated astronomers and scientists. Its surface features and mineral composition suggest that the planet once had flowing water, with today’s now void, dusty craters once home to lakes or oceans.
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“The interiors of some impact craters have basins suggesting crater lakes, with many showing connecting channels consistent with water flows into and out of the crater,” said Joseph Grebowsky of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Small impact craters have been removed with time and larger craters show signs of erosion by water before 3.7 billion years ago. And sedimentary layering is seen on valley walls. Minerals are present on the surface that can only be produced in the presence of liquid water, e.g., hematite and clays.”
Read more: Mars dirt a water reservoir, Curiosity finds
So what happened?
It could have gone into the ground, but one of the leading theories is that the sun’s wind played a role in stripping off the atmosphere. There may have been other contributing factors.
The sun has a stream of electrically-charged particles, called plasma, that are blown across the solar system. On Earth, we are protected from the solar wind by our atmosphere.
It is possible that this played a role in slowly stripping away the Mars atmosphere.
MAVEN, working with other Mars missions such as Curiosity, will help measure the rate of loss to space.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) will launch on Nov. 18. The window for launch is from Nov. 18 to Dec. 7. However, it could launch as late as Dec. 15.
If it misses this launch window, the mission will have to wait two more years until Earth and Mars are positioned this way again.
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