This amazing video shows the impacts of a slow, yet very powerful and destructive force, solar wind. Solar wind is the continuous flow of charged particles, emitted from the sun, and expelled out to the solar system. The particles that make up solar wind have enough energy to collide planets’ atmospheres and propel atmospheric ions out to space. Mars, unlike Earth, lacks a magnetic field that shields the planet from charged particles. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio and the MAVEN Science Team used data collected from MAVEN to simulate the role solar wind played in ravaging the Martian atmosphere. I appreciate this simulation from a scientific perspective because NASA used this data to validate that solar wind played a major role in the loss of the atmosphere of Mars.  Additionally, this video provides a different medium in which this information can be interpreted and shared.

All video credits go to NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio and the MAVEN Science Team.

Original video link is here.