After learning that Mars was a very different planet in the past compared to the one we are used to seeing, what happened to make it lose its heat and liquid water and become so dry and inhospitable?
The North American space agency, NASA, has obtained, thanks to the examination of the data from the MAVEN mission, the first evidence about what it was that transformed Mars into what it is today. The MAVEN probe has made extensive measurements of the upper Martian atmosphere, the composition of its ionosphere, and the variability of its magnetosphere .
The data has revealed that when Mars was bombarded in March by a powerful coronal mass ejection from the Sun, strong magnetic rotations were detected that expanded the tendrils of fire caused by this phenomenon up to 5,000 kilometers away in space . According to experts, the increase in the rate of ion escape into space in an event with similar characteristics – although to a greater degree – could explain the change in the evolution of the atmosphere of Mars.
Thus, the person responsible would have been the Sun itself due to a strong solar wind that would end up pulverizing the atmosphere of Mars and with it its oceans . Considering that billions of years ago the Sun was incredibly more active and unstable than it is today, the explanation takes hold. In addition, the fact that Mars had such an event in the past is because our neighboring red planet does not have a magnetic field to protect its environment from the solar wind as Earth does. Our star would have thus determined the future of Mars through a great solar storm.
The study, led by researcher Bruce Jakosky from the University of Colorado (USA), has been published in the journal Science .
