NASA's MAVEN Reveals First Look at Mars' Upper Atmosphere to Scientists

NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has given scientists their very first look at the atmosphere of Mars. The findings reveal a bit more about the Red Planet and could give researchers the information they need when it comes to launching future missions to Mars.

The spacecraft entered Mars' orbit on Sept. 21. It's currently lowering its orbit in order to test its instruments. Its main mission is to discover exactly how Mars lost most of its atmosphere.

"All the instruments are showing data quality that is better than anticipated at this early stage of the mission," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator, in a news release. "All instruments have now been turned on-although not yet fully checked out-and they are functioning nominally. It's turning out to be an easy and straightforward spacecraft to fly, at least so far. It really looks as if we're headed for an exciting science mission."

The most recent observations that MAVEN has made were of solar energetic particles (SEPs). These streams of high-speed particles blast from the sun during explosive solar activity, such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). On Sept. 26, a solar flare produced a CME that reached Mars on Sept. 29. MAVEN was able to observe the onset of the event.

"After traveling through interplanetary space, these energetic particles of mostly protons deposit their energy in the upper atmosphere of Mars," said Davin Larson, SEP Instrument lead. "A SEP event like this typically occurs every couple weeks. Once all the instruments are turned on, we expect to also be able to track the response of the upper atmosphere to them."

In fact, this is exactly what MAVEN is meant to do. The scientists hope to examine the Martian atmosphere to better understand its evolution. Already, MAVEN has observed the edges of the Martian atmosphere using the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS), which is sensitive to sunlight reflected by atoms.

"With these observations, MAVEN's IUVS has obtained the most complete picture of the extended Martian atmosphere ever made," said Mike Chaffin, MAVEN remote sensing team member.

Currently, the scientists are gearing MAVEN up for future observations. This should tell them a bit more about the Red Planet's current atmosphere and about its past.

For more information about MAVEN, visit NASA's website.