Curiosity Finds Increased Amount of Oxygen in the Mars Atmosphere

In a recent development, NASA’s Curiosity rover found something interesting in the Mars atmosphere. After six years of journey in the red planet, the Curiosity rover found a large amount of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. Scientists are amazed by the recent data received from the rover. Scientists never predicted such a scale of Oxygen present on Mars. 

Discovery by the Curiosity Rover

During spring and summer season in the red planet, the oxygen level increased significantly, revealed the data received from the rover. After some complex calculations, scientists confirmed that the amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere increased by 400 parts per million. This is around 30% more than the initial assumption. The increased atmospheric Oxygen further confirmed the seasonal ebb and methane flow hypothesis. 

Sushil Atreya, a planetary scientist at Michigan University, said that the red planet again fooled us. The new development indicates our lack of understanding about the Martian atmosphere, he added. The increased oxygen rate might be the result of photosynthesis, a researcher added. 

The recent development increased the curiosity among research scholars and scientist community like never before. During the next summer, four countries will launch their respective missions to the red planet. As a result, the scientific community is expecting more clarity regarding the new development. NASA’s 2020 rover is one of the highly anticipated Mars mission in 2020. But, the joint effort between the European Union and Russia is taking all the limelight. They are launching an ExoMars mission to explore the red planet further. The ExoMars mission includes Rosalind Franklin rover in it. The rover is expected to drill around six feet from the surface of Mars for a better understanding of the inner chemistry of Red Planet. 

Melissa Trainer, a scientist in Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the humans need to understand how Mars operates as a system, and the future missions will reveal several other exciting and unaware facts.