The mystery of was there ever oceans or rivers on Mars is one we no longer scratch our heads about, we’re certainly there was. However, we still can’t really find much water and while there have been some impressive developments over the last couple of years that have found more evidence than ever, as well as low concentrations of water in the Martian soil, it has only spurred us to look even closer at the red planet.
We suspect that the sun slowly stripped Mars of its atmosphere, eventually leading to the planet being as dry as it is today, but exactly how that happened is still something we need to investigate. Nasa’s new Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, or Maven, is set to launch at 1:28pm EST / 1828 GMT today (Monday 18/11/2013) and will arrive at Mars next September.
“Maven is going to focus on trying to understand what the history of the atmosphere has been, how the climate has changed through time and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability – at least by microbes – of Mars,” said the lead scientist Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The image of Mars being covered with oceans, rivers, a thick atmosphere and a warmer climate are great food for the imagination, but while there is much evidence to support this theory we still need to pick apart the clues left behind, something that may tell us the future of our own planets fate.
Maven isn’t the only mission heading out in that direction either, and India’s Mars Orbiter Mission will be arriving just two days later to perform its own experiments.
Thank you Guardian for providing us with this information.
Image courtesy of Guardian.
