How Did Mars Lose Its Atmosphere?
September 13, 2012
Though it doesn’t look like a nice place to live now, Mars may have had an atmosphere more like ours on Earth! But how did it lose it? One way a planet can lose its atmosphere is through a process called “sputtering.” In this process, atoms are knocked away from the atmosphere due to impacts from energetic particles.
credit: NASA
Topics:
Environment, Astronomy, Space, Planetary science, Mars, Planetary atmospheres, Coatings, Materials science, Sputtering, Planet, Atmospheric escape, Atmosphere
