Since NASA discovered that Mars once had liquid water, it was a warm world, and life might exist, various topics surrounding Mars have emerged one after another.

Since NASA discovered that Mars once had liquid water, it was a warm world, and life might exist, various topics surrounding Mars have emerged one after another, and Mars has become really popular because of this!

Previously, scientists discovered the secret of how the outer coat of Mars' atmosphere was "stolen". This major discovery is related to the Martian atmosphere and the volatile evolution probe. In fact, this probe has a simple name, called "Ma Wen"!

Its identity is not simple. It is the world's first probe specializing in the atmosphere of Mars. Data sent back by Ma Wen shows that solar wind is the mastermind behind Mars' loss of its atmospheric cloak and is also an important reason for the significant changes in Mars' climate. The solar wind sounds cool, but is actually even more cool. It is a stream of high-energy charged particles, mainly composed of protons and electrons, consisting of the upper atmosphere of the sun, and can reach a speed of 1.6 million kilometers per hour.

Scientists' observations show that when passing through the upper atmosphere of Mars, the magnetic field brought by the solar wind will generate an electric field and ionize the atoms in the Martian atmosphere into ions to escape into space.

What is even more terrifying than solar wind is solar storm . Mars obviously cannot withstand that kind of "torture". The peeling speed of the atmosphere coat is significantly increased, and the speed can be increased by 10 to 20 times. The probe Marvin sent the report to scientists, and data showed that the solar wind peeled off the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 100 grams per second.

Billions of years ago, when the early solar activity was very active, the Martian atmosphere was stripped away by the solar wind much higher than it is now. In the following billions of years, solar wind and solar storms have been tormenting Mars and gradually taking off the outer coat of Mars' atmosphere, which is an important reason for changing the Martian climate.

Compared with poor Mars, the Earth is much luckier because it is protected by Earth's magnetic field , and the high-energy particle flow brought by the solar wind is deflected, protecting the Earth's atmosphere. Although Mars also had a global magnetic field like the Earth in the early days, Mars was only 15% of the Earth's volume, much smaller than the Earth. Therefore, the nuclear cooled faster than the Earth's core, geological activity slowed down, the magnetic field disappeared, and finally the atmosphere became thinner, making liquid water unable to exist stably.

New research shows that the Martian atmosphere is lost from three regions. The first is the ion tail formed behind Mars after the solar wind passes through the Martian atmosphere, the other is the plume formed by the escape of two-stage atmospheric particles of Mars, and the gas cloud that expands around Mars.

75% of the stripped ions in the Martian atmosphere originate from the ion tail, and there are 25% of the plumes formed by the north and south poles of the atoms. The expanded gas cloud is more domineering and has almost no atmosphere lost.

The early Mars was still a handsome boy wearing a thicker atmospheric cloak. It can support the presence of liquid water on the surface and is a good place to live. But no matter how beautiful it is, it is just the past. Scientists said that they will definitely thoroughly figure out the ins and outs of the lost cloak of the Martian atmosphere, which will be of great help to us understand the evolution of the Earth and other planetary atmospheres, because this is a serious issue, not only concerning the life on Earth, but even on all planets. Although the Earth has a powerful magnetic field to protect the atmosphere, the magnetic field is not omnipotent. As time goes by, the core of the Earth gradually cools down, the strength of the magnetic field weakens, and the Earth may encounter the same fate as Mars in the distant future!

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