Mars is habitable but the sun could have killed it: NASA

NASA has released a new finding supporting the theory that Mars had potentially been a habitable planet in the past. The space agency believes that the Red Planet potentially had a warm and wet environment that might have supported life on its surface, but the sun’s solar storms had caused the dramatic transition to its atmosphere that made it a cold arid dry planet today.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, has revealed that there had been a shift on the Martian climate. The changes could be the result of the still occurring loss of its gas to space due to solar wind.

The findings, published on Nov 5 in the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters, indicate that Mars have had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support liquid water on its surface. It is a well known fact that water is a key ingredient and medium for life in a planet, according to John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission of NASA has helped experts to analyse the Martian climate. The MAVEN mission was launched to Mars in November 2013.

Experts have observed that there is a significant increase in the current atmospheric erosion on Mars during solar storms, which led to the theory that the loss rate could be much higher billions of years ago when the sun was younger and more active, according to Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado.

The most recent series of solar storms that hit the atmosphere of Mars occurred in March, which MAVEN has found an accelerated loss on the planet’s atmosphere. The data suggests that the loss of atmosphere to space could potentially be a major process that contributed to the change in the Martian climate.

It has already been discovered that Mars appears to have signs of abundant water on its surface. This discovery has sparked scientists to think that the atmosphere of Mars could be much denser and warmer about billions of years ago.

These features of ancient Mars could potentially lead to the formation of rivers, lakes and perhaps even oceans of liquid water, according to NASA. In addition, the space agency has recently found the presence of seasonal hydrated salts on Mars, which indicates that there could be briny liquid water on its surface today.

"Solar-wind erosion is an important mechanism for atmospheric loss, and was important enough to account for significant change in the Martian climate,” said Joe Grebowsky, MAVEN project scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Analysing the history of the atmosphere of Mars would provide the information needed to understand the dynamics and evolution of any planetary atmosphere, Grunsfeld said in a press release.

NASA scientists are aiming to identify the levels of Mar’s atmosphere and water that have been lost to space. The MAVEN mission is expected to complete its mission on Nov 16.

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