Mars Evolution from Wet to Dry for Planetariums
Ancient regions on Mars bear signs of abundant water - such as features resembling valleys and deltas, and minerals that only form in the presence of liquid water. Scientists think that billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Mars was much denser and warm enough to form rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans of water. As the planet cooled and lost its global magnetic field, the solar wind and solar storms eroded away to space a significant amount of the planet’s atmosphere, turning Mars into the cold, arid desert we see today. The goal of MAVEN is to determine how much of Mars’ atmosphere and water have been lost to space, and how these processes have changed the climate on the Red Planet over its history.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
The Lunar and Planetary Institute
NASA's MAVEN mission
Animator
- John Blackwell (LPI)
Producer
- John Blackwell (LPI)
Project support
- Christine Shupla (LPI)
- Tom Mason (LASP)
Support
- Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle)
Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET)
- Adam Barnes (HMNS)
- Tony Butterfield (HMNS)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:You may also like...
Loading...