Key scientific findings about Mars' atmosphere and its fate will be revealed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Nov. 5, 2015.
The news conference will kick off at 2:00 PM EST (1900 GMT) and will be streamed live on the Space.com website. The conference will be held in NASA's Washington Headquarters at the James Webb Auditorium.
NASA's planetary science director Jim Green will chair the upcoming event. Conference speakers will include Michael Meyer (Mars Exploration Program lead scientist at NASA Headquarters), Bruce Jakosky (MAVEN spacecraft's chief investigator at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics or LASP at the University of Colorado), Jasper Halekas (MAVEN spacecraft's instrument lead for Solar Wind Ion Analyzer at the University of Iowa), Dave Brain, (MAVEN LASP co-investigator) and Yaxue Dong (MAVEN LASP science team member).
Key details made by NASA's spacecraft MAVEN will be reported during the Nov. 5 press conference. MAVEN stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, which is a $671 million mission set to discover why Mars has no atmosphere, how exactly it was lost and when. MAVEN was launched in November 2013 and reached Mars' orbit in September 2014.
"Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatiles from the Mars atmosphere to space has played through time, giving insight into the history of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability," wrote NASA officials on the mission overview of the MAVEN spacecraft.
MAVEN is just one of the five spacecraft in Mars' orbit. Others include NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey, European Space Agency's Mars Express and India's Mangalyaan probe.
Is there definite proof that Mars can be the next Earth? In September 2015, NASA confirmed that "liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars" based on data provided by the space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). There were also speculations that ancient Mars once had huge oceans and river systems but scientists believe a catastrophic event 'wiped out' these bodies of water. Today, Mars' surface and skies seem barren and incapable of supporting any form of life, however, theories hold that it once had the right environments for the development of life.
