CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Mars is losing its atmosphere to outer space at a faster rate than Earth; know why. All terrestrial planets in the solar system constantly lose their atmosphere to outer space and the loss rate is determined by the size of the planet.

Detailed explanation-2: -The size of the planet and the temperature of its upper atmosphere determines the rate of loss. ISRO pegs Mars’ atmospheric deterioration to be faster than Earth’s because it’s much smaller.

Detailed explanation-3: -Although the atmosphere is losing gas today at a rate of only about 2–3 kg/s, rates would have been much higher early in Mars’s history, when the Sun’s extreme UV rays and the solar wind were more intense.

Detailed explanation-4: -Overall, about 1 kg of material is escaping our atmosphere every second, amounting to almost 90 tonnes per day. Singling out just cold ions (light hydrogen ions, which require less energy to escape and thus possess a lower energy in the magnetosphere), the escape mass totals thousands of tonnes per year.

Detailed explanation-5: -How do planets lose their atmospheres? There are several ways: a large impact can literally blow off the atmosphere (probably happened to Mars). When you heat up the molecules in an atmosphere, the molecules move faster and some of them can escape (this is how we lose hydrogen).