MAVEN

Key Findings

• 1.Determined Mars loses approximately 100 grams of atmosphere per second to solar wind stripping via solar energetic particle events and coronal mass ejections
• 2.Calculated that solar-wind-driven atmospheric escape over ~3.5 billion years accounts for the transformation of Mars from a warm, wet world to its current cold, dry state
• 3.Detected widespread discrete and diffuse auroras driven by crustal magnetic field anomalies in the southern hemisphere — a class of aurora not possible on Earth
• 4.Measured a metal ion layer in the upper atmosphere originating from meteoroid ablation — the first detection of this phenomenon on another planet

Mission Outcome

Sources

1. [1] Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), University of Colorado Boulder — retrieved 2026-06-01

   “MAVEN has revealed the processes that led to the loss of much of the Martian atmosphere to space, causing Mars to transition from a warm, wet environment in its early history to the cold, dry planet we see today.”

2. [2] NASA NSSDCA — retrieved 2026-06-01