Posted on 09/27/2014 9:45:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Launched on November 18, 2013, the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft completed its interplanetary voyage September 21, captured into a wide, elliptical orbit around Mars. MAVEN's imaging ultraviolet spectrograph has already begun its planned exploration of the Red Planet's upper atmosphere, acquiring this image data from an altitude of 36,500 kilometers. In false color, the three ultraviolet wavelength bands show light reflected from atomic hydrogen (in blue), atomic oxygen (in green) and the planet's surface (in red). Low mass atomic hydrogen is seen to extend thousands of kilometers into space, with the cloud of more massive oxygen atoms held closer by Mars' gravity. Both are by products of the breakdown of water and carbon dioxide in Mars' atmosphere and the MAVEN data can be used to determine the rate of water loss over time. In fact, MAVEN is the first mission dedicated to exploring Mars' tenuous upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the Sun and solar wind. But the most recent addition to the fleet of spacecraft from planet Earth now in martian orbit is MOM.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: MAVEN, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Univ. Colorado, NASA]
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It might prove interesting to learn what the total volume of the Hydrogen amounts to. Is it commensurate with the amount which Mars might have had during its wet period, or is it more - lending some credence to the Krypton theory.
I also find it interesting that Maven found such extensive atmosphere so far above the surface of a planet which supposedly lost its atmosphere millions of years ago - more interesting that there is hydrogen which should have long vanished.
“Maven” is a Yiddish word meaning “Expert”.
LOL, this must really cheese off the muzzies that NASA was supposed to placate!
hahahahahahahaha
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