Mars crust dynamically contributed to makeup of its atmosphere: NASA

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: As per a recent study, chemistry in the surface material on Mars has contributed majorly to the makeup of its atmosphere over time.

 

The findings come from the NASA's Curiosity rover's Sample Analysis at Mars, or SAM, instrument suite, which studied the gases xenon and krypton in the Mars atmosphere.

The two gases can be used as tracers to help scientists investigate the evolution and erosion of the Martian atmosphere.

The SAM team ran a series of first-of-a-kind experiments to measure all the isotopes of xenon and krypton in the Martian atmosphere, a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters said.

The team's method is called static mass spectrometry, and it is good for detecting gases or isotopes that are present only in trace amounts.

(With IANS inputs)