The Martian Atmosphere is Sputtering

The Martian Atmosphere is Sputtering
By Matthew Williams (https://ift.tt/4UBSjuX)

The Earth's atmosphere is protected by a magnetosphere, but Mars lacks this protective shield and lost its atmosphere to space long ago through interactions with the solar wind. In a new paper, scientists report that they have directly observed this process of "atmospheric sputtering," watching how incoming ions from the solar wind directly cause neutral atmospheric particles to escape. They found the process is stronger than anticipated, especially in solar storms.

June 10, 2025 at 11:12PM
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