NEW DELHI: Solar winds may have led to Mart losing its atmosphere, according to a computer simulation study that confirms the ever-present belief that planets need a protective magnetic field to block these harmful radiations to sustain life.
Although factors such as the existence of a moderately warm, humid atmosphere and liquid water determine whether a planet can host life, the study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, noted that the ability of the planets to generate magnetic fields around it is an ignored aspect.
According to scientists Arnab Basak and Dibyendu Nandi of the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, these magnetic fields surrounding the planets can act as a protective umbrella, protecting the atmosphere from super-fast plasma winds. Ground.
On Earth, they said that a geo-dynamo mechanism generates the protective magnetosphere of the planet, an invisible shield that prevents the solar wind from eroding our atmosphere.
In the current study, scientists simulated two scenarios of the Red planet – One considering a young Mars with its magnetosphere intact and the other with the planet without this force field.
The simulations revealed that on young Mars, the magnetosphere could have acted as a shield that prevented the solar wind from getting too close to the planet’s atmosphere, thus protecting it.
Without an intrinsic magnetosphere, the researchers said the magnetic field of the solar wind could have surrounded itself for the first time and slipped over Mars, carrying chunks of the planet’s atmosphere and eventually eroding it completely.
They said the findings confirm the belief that magnetospheres around the planets play a crucial role in determining their ability to sustain life.
Scientists added that alternately planets that lose their magnetic field become inhospitable with the loss of their atmosphere.
Researchers believe the study has important implications for the search for habitable exoplanets through initiatives such as NASAJames Webb Space Telescope i ISROExoWorlds mission.