The Day the Solar Wind Disappeared from Mars

Released Monday, December 11, 2023

ID: 14477

- Produced by:
- Dan Gallagher
- Visualizations by:
- Kel Elkins
- Scientific consulting by:
- Jasper Halekas

Learn about the “disappearance” of the solar wind at Mars that was witnessed by MAVEN – an event last seen nearly a quarter-century ago at Earth.

Complete transcript available.

Universal Production Music: “Space Museum” by Harry Gregson Williams [BMI], Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS]; “Currents and Crime Scenes” by Dylan Matthew Love and Harry Gregson Williams [BMI], Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS]

Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

In December 2022, NASA’s Mars-orbiting MAVEN mission observed the dramatic and unexpected “disappearance” of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that continuously emanates from the Sun. This was caused by a special type of solar event that was so powerful, it created a void in its wake as it traveled through the solar system. The Martian atmosphere and magnetosphere expanded by thousands of kilometers in response, causing the solar wind to temporarily vanish from Mars. MAVEN’s observations of this dramatic event are helping scientists to better understand the physics that drive atmospheric and water loss at Mars.

Learn more about MAVEN’s observation of the disappearing solar wind at Mars.

VERTICAL VIDEO – Formatted for smartphone viewing.

Watch this video on the NASA Solar System Instagram account.

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Producer
- Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Technical support
- Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
Visualizers
- Kel Elkins (USRA)
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Communications
- Willow Reed (University of Colorado Boulder)
Public affairs
- Nancy Neal-Jones (NASA/GSFC)
Scientists
- Jasper Halekas (University of Iowa)
- Skylar Shaver (University of Colorado Boulder)
- Abigail Azari (University of California, Berkeley)
- Yingjuan Ma (UCLA)
- Shannon Curry (University of California, Berkeley)
Animators
- Walt Feimer (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Chris Meaney (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Jonathan North (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- John Blackwell (LPI)
- Kim Dongjae (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Narrator
- Dan Gallagher (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)