MAVEN Mission Directly Observes “Sputtering” — In The Barsoomian Very Thin Atmosphere — Confirming CU Prof. Curry’s Thesis About Water Loss, There…

Yes, this is another “palette cleanser” (from Tangerine’s bitter lunacy — now saying Musk “suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome“; and Musk responding that Tangerine “would not have won in 2024” — without him!). Where was I? Oh, right — the below highlights the decade long work of Dr. Shannon Curry, at the University of Colorado at Boulder — on what happened to Mars’ atmosphere, billions of years ago, now.

Well done, Dr. Curry! Her work is the centerpiece of the video below, and she is the PI (principal investigator) on this NASA mission. Very rarified air, indeed. Do read on:

…Scientists have known for a long time, through an abundance of evidence, that water was present on Mars’ surface billions of years ago, but are still asking the crucial question, “Where did the water go and why?”

Early on in Mars’ history, the atmosphere of the Red Planet lost its magnetic field, and its atmosphere became directly exposed to the solar wind and solar storms. As the atmosphere began to erode, liquid water was no longer stable on the surface, so much of it escaped to space. But how did this once thick atmosphere get stripped away? Sputtering could explain it.

Sputtering is an atmospheric escape process in which atoms are knocked out of the atmosphere by energetic charge particles.

“It’s like doing a cannonball in a pool,” said Shannon Curry, principal investigator of MAVEN at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead author of the study. “The cannonball, in this case, is the heavy ions crashing into the atmosphere really fast and splashing neutral atoms and molecules out….”

As previously printed, here is a haiku from a few years past — one that traveled on board Maven to Mars, from one student’s submission — one of thousands — one that now seems rather prophetic:

“Mars, your secret is
unknown for humanity
we want to know you…“

Now you know. We do… want to know you. Again.

And so, do go watch this fine video explainer above (featuring Dr. Curry’s narration) — and root for my Buffs, this coming fall — under Coach Prime — again! Heh — but know that UCLA is an away game this year; the best home game (viewable from Dr. Curry’s office window — looking down into Folsom Field) will probably be Arizona, or ASU (in mid November). Onward, grinning….

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