Mars atmosphere protected from the Solar Wind tagged posts

Left: Charged particles from the sun (the solar wind) form an induced magnetosphere round Mars, which unlike the sun does not have its own intrinsic magnetic field (artwork: Anastasia Grigoryeva) Larger file Right: Robin Ramstad points out the position of the Swedish instrument ASPERA-3 on a model of the Mars Express spacecraft (photo: Anastasia Grigoryeva)

Despite the absence of a global Earth-like magnetic dipole, the Martian atmosphere is well protected from the effects of the solar wind on ion escape from the planet. New research shows this using measurements from the Swedish particle instrument ASPERA-3 on the Mars Express spacecraft. Present-day Mars is a cold and dry planet with less than 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at the surface...