Latest news with #Martian
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA discovers phenomenon that could have led to water loss on Mars
May 29 (UPI) -- NASA scientists have discovered evidence that could help answer questions surrounding the history of water loss on Mars. The new research comes after a decade of exploration by NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric Volatile Evolution) mission shows evidence of an escape process known as "sputtering," during which atoms are knocked out of the atmosphere by what are known as "charge particles," NASA said in a release. "It's like doing a cannonball in a pool," Shannon Curry, a principal investigator with the MAVEN mission and a co-author of the research report, said. "The cannonball, in this case, is the heavy ions crashing into the atmosphere really fast and splashing neutral atoms and molecules out." Scientists have an abundance of evidence that water existed on the Martian surface billions of years ago, but they have been trying to find out where it went. Research has shown that when Mars lost its magnetic field, its surface was exposed to solar wind storms that allowed the liquid water to escape into space. But that does not explain why the once-thick Martian atmosphere was almost entirely stripped away. Sputtering, the new report says, could help explain it. "It's like we found the ashes from a campfire," Curry continued. "But we wanted to see the actual fire, in this case sputtering, directly. The team used a series of MAVEN tools to measure several atmospheric factors in both daylight and dark at low altitudes to observe the phenomenon, which took years to complete. "The combination of data from these instruments allowed scientists to make a new kind of map of sputtered argon in relation to the solar wind," the NASA release said. "This map revealed the presence of argon at high altitudes in exact locations that the energetic particles crashed into the atmosphere and splashed out argon, showing sputtering in real time." Researchers determined at least one of the causes for the loss of water on the Martian surface, but they were also able to recreate the conditions that may have made the planet inhabitable billions of years ago.
UPI
4 hours ago
- Science
- UPI
NASA discovers phenomenon that could have led to water loss on Mars
The surface of Mars as seen by the Pathfinder rover in 1997. Photo courtesy of NASA May 29 (UPI) -- NASA scientists have discovered evidence that could help answer questions surrounding the history of water loss on Mars. The new research comes after a decade of exploration by NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmospheric Volatile Evolution) mission shows evidence of an escape process known as "sputtering," during which atoms are knocked out of the atmosphere by what are known as "charge particles," NASA said in a release. "It's like doing a cannonball in a pool," Shannon Curry, a principal investigator with the MAVEN mission and a co-author of the research report, said. "The cannonball, in this case, is the heavy ions crashing into the atmosphere really fast and splashing neutral atoms and molecules out." Scientists have an abundance of evidence that water existed on the Martian surface billions of years ago, but they have been trying to find out where it went. Research has shown that when Mars lost its magnetic field, its surface was exposed to solar wind storms that allowed the liquid water to escape into space. But that does not explain why the once-thick Martian atmosphere was almost entirely stripped away. Sputtering, the new report says, could help explain it. "It's like we found the ashes from a campfire," Curry continued. "But we wanted to see the actual fire, in this case sputtering, directly. The team used a series of MAVEN tools to measure several atmospheric factors in both daylight and dark at low altitudes to observe the phenomenon, which took years to complete. "The combination of data from these instruments allowed scientists to make a new kind of map of sputtered argon in relation to the solar wind," the NASA release said. "This map revealed the presence of argon at high altitudes in exact locations that the energetic particles crashed into the atmosphere and splashed out argon, showing sputtering in real time." Researchers determined at least one of the causes for the loss of water on the Martian surface, but they were also able to recreate the conditions that may have made the planet inhabitable billions of years ago.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Out-of-control Canadian wildfires sending smoke into Upper Midwest prompt air quality alerts
MINNEAPOLIS – Extreme wildfires burning in Canada and prompting evacuations are now impacting the U.s., as weather systems will cause smoke to drift southward into areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin in the Upper Midwest late this week. More than 160 wildfires across Canada have burned more than 1.6 million acres. Fast-moving fires across Saskatchewan and Manitoba triggered evacuations this week. How Is Air Quality Measured? The fires in Manitoba prompted provincial officials to issue a state of emergency. "This is the largest evacuation in many Manitobans' living memory, and this will require significant resources and co-operation from all levels of government," Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said. "I have spoken with the prime minister, and we have asked for the support of the Canadian Armed Forces in transporting evacuees. There are hundreds of people who are mobilized to get you to safety and provide help. This is what Manitobans do, and we will get through this." The FOX Forecast Center is tracking smoke across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes through Friday evening. Wildfire smoke will drift over cities including Duluth and Minneapolis in Minnesota and Green Bay and Milwaukee in Wisconsin. The Dakotas will also experience some smoke. By Friday night, smoke could move down into Illinois, including Chicago. Air quality alerts are in effect for parts of the Upper Midwest, including areas west of Lake Superior to the Canadian border. The air quality in the Arrowhead of Minnesota is forecast to reach red, or unhealthy, on the air quality index. According to the National Weather Service, the smoke will drift southeastward with an area of high pressure beginning Thursday morning and could linger near Lake Superior into Friday morning. On Friday, another round of heavy smoke from wildfires will likely descend into Minnesota behind a cold front. The situation this week will be less hazardous than what Canada and the northern U.S. experienced nearly two years ago during a devastating Canadian wildfire season. In June 2023, the wildfires in Canada turned the skies across the Northeast orange and reduced air quality to hazardous – the most extreme rating on the air quality index – for major cities, including New York City, Philadelphia and Washington. The dramatic scene made Manhattan look like a Martian landscape. However, this likely won't be the last wildfire smoke from Canada to reach the U.S. this year. Canada's wildfire season is most active from May through article source: Out-of-control Canadian wildfires sending smoke into Upper Midwest prompt air quality alerts
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Scientists Have Clear Evidence of Martian Atmosphere 'Sputtering'
For the first time, scientists have caught a key driver of the ongoing erosion of the atmosphere of Mars in action. It took more than nine years' worth of satellite data, but a team led by planetary scientist Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder has finally detected unmistakable signs of atmospheric sputtering. This is, the researchers say, a crucial piece of the puzzle of how Mars lost both its atmosphere and its water. "These results provide a substantial step toward observationally establishing sputtering's role in the loss of Mars' atmosphere," the team writes in their paper, "and, hence, in determining the history of water and those implications for habitability over time." Atmospheric sputtering is thought to be one of the dominant mechanisms for atmospheric loss in the early Solar System, when the Sun was brighter and more active. It happens when ions are accelerated by the electric field of the Solar wind into the atmosphere of a body – like Mars – that is unprotected by a global magnetic field. The effect is a little bit like when a meteorite smacks into a planet: energy is transferred to the surrounding neutral medium, kicking it up in a spray. But for sputtering, some of the atmospheric atoms and molecules gain enough energy to achieve escape velocity, and off they go, flung into space on a new adventure. It's difficult to observe this process on Mars. It requires simultaneous observation of the flung neutral atoms, and either the ions that smacked into the atmosphere, or the electric field that accelerated them. It also requires simultaneous dayside and nightside observations of Mars, deep into its atmosphere. The only spacecraft with the equipment and orbital configuration to make these observations is NASA's MAVEN. The researchers carefully pored over the data collected by the spacecraft since it arrived in Mars orbit in September 2014, looking to find simultaneous observations of the solar electric field and an upper atmosphere abundance of argon – one of the sputtered particles, used as a tracer for the phenomenon. They found that, above an altitude of 350 kilometers (217 miles), argon densities vary depending on the orientation of the solar wind electric field, compared to argon densities at lower altitudes that remain consistent. The results showed that lighter isotopes of argon vary, leaving behind an excess of heavy argon – a discrepancy that is best explained by active sputtering. This is supported by observations of a solar storm, the outflows of which arrived at Mars in January 2016. During this time, the evidence of sputtering became significantly more pronounced. Not only does this support the team's finding that argon density variations at high Martian altitudes are the result of sputtering, it demonstrates what conditions may have been like billions of years ago, when the Sun was younger and rowdier, undergoing more frequent storm activity. "We find that atmospheric sputtering today is over four times higher than previous predictions and that a solar storm can substantially increase the sputtered yield," the researchers write. "Our results confirm that sputtering is occurring on present-day Mars and could have been the main pathway for atmospheric escape at Mars during the early epochs of our Solar System when the solar activity and extreme ultraviolet intensities were much higher." The results have been published in Science Advances. Chance X-Ray Discovery Reveals Mystery Object 15,000 Light Years Away SpaceX Starship's Latest Test Ends in Destruction Over Indian Ocean Star Caught Orbiting Inside Another Star in Bizarre First
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
UR researchers find similarities between the surfaces of Earth and Mars
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Researchers at the University of Rochester say some Martian soil looks like it's been shaped like we see on Earth's coldest climates — think the arctic. But there are a lot of things to ponder. 'That is a little bit where my research is heading towards, is trying to see is climate involved in these formations, or is it just a phenomenon that's occurring and we just see it in these certain locations on earth,' said JohnPaul Sleiman, a PhD Student at the University of Rochester. Sleiman is one of the researchers on the project, along with Assistant Professor of environmental science Rachel Glade. They looked at satellite images of nine craters on Mars and compared them to the arctic and mountain regions here on our home planet. 'In the winter, when soil freezes, it sort of poofs up perpendicular to the slope,' said Glade. 'We actually see this in Rochester. If you go out in the winter, sometimes the soil heaves… So, it's a common process in cold places in the winter, and then in the summer when it thaws, the soil sort of settles, and this can cause downhill motion of the soil.' Researchers are likening this wave-like pattern to paint dripping down a wall. The impact is one to three centimeters per year. 'So, it's very slow, not something that's easy for humans to observe, but added up over many, many years, it can result in the formation of these patterns,' said Glade. These researchers say that what they can discover without actually leaving the planet and using their tools on Mars' surface is awesome. 'Studying these similar features is interesting because we, one, learn how it's working on Earth, we learn about how it's working on another planet,' said Sleiman, 'and that tells us both about both systems.' Ultimately, the study is raising big questions about Mars' past — and potentially its habitability. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
