---
title: "MAVEN Discovers Why Mars Lost It’s Atmosphere"
description: "Early discoveries by NASA’s newest Mars orbiter are starting to reveal key features about the loss of the planet’s atmosphere to space over time"
date: "2014-12-15"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Matthew Lincoln"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/justmatt"
url: "https://futurism.com/maven-discovers-mars-lost-atmosphere"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Mars"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# MAVEN Discovers Why Mars Lost It’s Atmosphere

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/MAVEN_Mars_atmosphere-300x195.jpg>)

- The observations reveal a new process by which the solar wind can penetrate deep into a planetary atmosphere. They include the first comprehensive measurements of the composition of Mars’ upper atmosphere and electrically charged ionosphere
- The results also offer an unprecedented view of ions as they gain the energy that will lead to their escape from the atmosphere
- Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder says "We are beginning to see the links in a chain that begins with solar-driven processes acting on gas in the upper atmosphere and leads to atmospheric loss"