Passage
For billions of years, Mars has transitioned from a warm, wet world with a thick atmosphere to the cold, dry desert we see today. In 2014, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft entered orbit to investigate the mechanisms driving this transition. Specifically, researchers hypothesized that the solar wind—a stream of charged particles constantly emitted by the Sun—was responsible for stripping away the Martian atmosphere.
MAVEN's instruments measured the rate of atmospheric ion loss under different solar conditions. During solar storms, such as coronal mass ejections, the rate of ion escape into space increased by a factor of more than ten. Furthermore, MAVEN detected a magnetic 'tail' stretching behind Mars, where solar magnetic field lines drape around the planet and accelerate ions outward. These observations demonstrate that solar activity actively drives the depletion of Mars’s light gases. While some scientists previously argued that internal planetary cooling and the subsequent loss of Mars's global magnetic field were the primary drivers of atmospheric escape, MAVEN's real-time data shows that external solar wind interactions remain the dominant force in the ongoing stripping of the Martian atmosphere.
Question
Match each of the scientific claims on the left with the specific textual evidence on the right that provides direct supporting evidence.
- Solar events accelerate the depletion of the Martian atmosphere."During solar storms, such as coronal mass ejections, the rate of ion escape into space increased by a factor of more than ten."
- The physical mechanism of ion escape involves solar magnetic fields interacting with the planet to force ions away."MAVEN detected a magnetic 'tail' stretching behind Mars, where solar magnetic field lines drape around the planet and accelerate ions outward."
- Ongoing atmospheric loss is primarily driven by external solar forces rather than historical internal planetary changes."MAVEN's real-time data shows that external solar wind interactions remain the dominant force in the ongoing stripping of the Martian atmosphere."