Planets and Moons  ID: 12266

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.
 

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Credits

Animator:
John Blackwell (LPI)

Producer:
John Blackwell (LPI)

Project Support:
Christine Shupla (LPI)
Tom Mason (LASP)

Technical Support:
Tony Butterfield (HMNS)
Adam Barnes (HMNS)
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Support:
Dan Gallagher (USRA)

Please give credit for this item to:
The Lunar and Planetary Institute
NASA's MAVEN mission

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12266

Mission:
MAVEN: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN

This item is part of this series:
MAVEN

Keywords:
SVS >> Mars
SVS >> Water
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans
SVS >> MAVEN
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
SVS >> Martian Atmosphere
SVS >> Planetarium

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0