Is This How Mars Lost Its Atmosphere?

Mars is losing its atmosphere. Over billions of years, the Red Planet has transformed from a potentially habitable world with lakes, rivers, and a thicker atmosphere into the cold, dry desert we see today. NASA’s MAVEN mission has been tracking this process in real time, catching Mars in the act of slowly sputtering its atmosphere into space.

This phenomenon—called “atmospheric sputtering”—happens when high-energy particles from the Sun slam into Mars’s upper atmosphere, knocking atoms and molecules loose. Without a global magnetic field to protect it, Mars is especially vulnerable. MAVEN has shown that this atmospheric escape accelerates during solar storms, offering a powerful view of how the Sun shapes the evolution of planetary atmospheres.

The data from MAVEN doesn’t just tell us about Mars—it helps us understand how atmospheres behave across the solar system and beyond. It’s a glimpse into what makes a planet stay habitable—or lose that potential entirely.

For more information, visit https://science.nasa.gov/mission/maven/

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Dan Gallagher: Lead Producer
Paul Morris: Producer / Editor
Dr. Shannon Curry: Scientist / Interviewee
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