Contact: Nancy Neal-Jones
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov
301-286-0039
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

How Did Mars Lose Its Atmosphere?

Caption: Though it doesn't look like a nice place to live now, Mars may have had an atmosphere more like ours on Earth! But how did it lose it? One way a planet can lose its atmosphere is through a process called "sputtering." In this process, atoms are knocked away from the atmosphere due to impacts from energetic particles.

Credit: NASA SVS

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