NASA's MAVEN gives first look at Mars' atmosphere


NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has provided its first results from its Mars mission, and its findings have given scientists a fresh look at the Martian atmosphere.
MAVEN, whose primary investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, provided scientists with three views of Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was launched in November 2013 "to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere," according to NASA.
The three new views of Mars' "escaping atmosphere" will help the MAVEN remote sensing team to better understand the processes of Mars' atmospheric loss by "observing all of the products of water and carbon dioxide breakdown," NASA reports. The results from the MAVEN spectograph have revealed a "storm of energetic solar particles" on Mars, the result of coronal mass ejections from the sun and a possible cause of atmospheric loss.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
MAVEN has provided "unprecedented ultraviolet images" of the oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon of the Martian atmosphere. Using MAVEN's observations, the scientists were able to create a map of the Martian ozone beneath atmospheric coronas. The scientists will conduct two weeks of "instrument calibration and testing" before MAVEN begins its "primary science mission" in November.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.
-
5 educational cartoons about the Harvard pushback
Cartoons Artists take on academic freedom, institutional resistance, and more
By The Week US
-
One-pan black chickpeas with baharat and orange recipe
The Week Recommends This one-pan dish offers bold flavours, low effort and minimum clean up
By The Week UK
-
Merz's coalition deal: a 'betrayal' of Germany?
Talking Point With liberalism, freedom and democracy under threat globally, it's a time for 'giants' – but this is a 'coalition of the timid'
By The Week UK
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant world
Speed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocket
Speed Read Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Scientists map miles of wiring in mouse brain
Speed Read Researchers have created the 'largest and most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date,' said Nature
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Scientists genetically revive extinct 'dire wolves'
Speed Read A 'de-extinction' company has revived the species made popular by HBO's 'Game of Thrones'
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Dark energy may not doom the universe, data suggests
Speed Read The dark energy pushing the universe apart appears to be weakening
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Pharaoh's tomb discovered for first time in 100 years
Speed Read This is the first burial chamber of a pharaoh unearthed since Tutankhamun in 1922
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Scientists report optimal method to boil an egg
Speed Read It takes two temperatures of water to achieve and no fancy gadgets
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Europe records big leap in renewable energy
Speed Read Solar power overtook coal for the first time
By Peter Weber, The Week US