Solar storm stripping away Mars’ atmosphere

Scientists have documented a solar storm blasting away Mars’ atmosphere, a vital clue to how a planet that was once like Earth turned into a cold, dry desert.

Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a magnetic field to protect its atmosphere, leaving it vulnerable to ultraviolet radiation and high-energy blasts of gas and magnetic particles from the sun.

On March 8, Nasa’s Mars-orbiting Maven spacecraft caught such a storm stripping away the planet’s atmosphere, according to a report published in this week’s issue of the journal Science.