Who knew??

This surprising comet gives us new clues into the atmospheric past of Mars.  Even to this day, Mars has a small atmosphere which a lot of people do not realize.  Most astronomers think the vast majority of it was stripped away by solar wind.  That seems kind of obvious but what else may have happened and what do we know about the future of its atmosphere and that of other planets?

In the Autumn of 2014, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft arrived at Mars and entered into orbit.

And it saw something very unexpected.  Here is a bit more on what is saw:

When Siding Spring approached Mars, it came to within 140,000 km (87,000 miles) of the planet. But the comet’s coma nearly touched the surface of the planet, and during that hours-long encounter, the magnetic field from the comet created havoc with Mars’ magnetic field. And MAVEN’s magnetometer captured the event.

Let’s find out more about this mysterious comet on page 2

Next Page »