For decades, scientists has tried to unravel the mystery of what happened to all the water that once flowed on Mars.
Climbing evidence shows that Mars was once a wet, warm planet and possibly a home. But over time, Mars lost the sensation and, as a result, its water.
With the help of NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, scientists were able to gain a richer understanding of the Martian atmosphere that may have solved part of the planet’s mysteries.
THE WORLD CLOSES THE 20 OVERVIEW OF THE BIG 2020. THIS IS NUMBER 12. See the full list here.
By observing Mars just over 92 miles, or 150 kilometers, above the planet, a team of researchers from the University of Arizona were able to discover how Mars’ water could disappear view from its surface.
The Red Planet regularly receives regional dust storms, but in 2018 the planet was overwhelmed by a global dust storm.
According to the new data, dust storms rising from the Martian surface appear to have been slowly draining the planet’s water over millions of years, sweeping water molecules up on a wild voyage into the atmosphere.
This happens on Earth, too – irrigated water molecules travel upwards until they wake up from gas back to liquid, becoming water-filled clouds. The area of our atmosphere where this process takes place is called hygropause.
On Mars, this process does not occur as efficiently as on Earth, causing water to move into the upper atmosphere of Mars and react with atmospheric molecules where it is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can completely escape the Martian atmosphere and be lost to the outer space forever, the study suggests.
Scientists continue to study the atmosphere of Mars in hopes of finding out if the planet had hosted some sort of early history, thus solving our an oral question to find life outside of Earth.
THE WORLD CLOSES THE 20 OVERVIEW OF THE BIG WORLD 2020. THIS IS NUMBER 12. SITE THE STORY ITSELF HERE.