Summary: Charged particles streaming out from the sun at about a million miles an hour (otherwise known as solar winds) impact all of the planets in our solar system. The Earth has a strong global magnetic field, and that magnetic field largely shields the Earth's atmosphere from the effects of solar winds. On the other hand, Mars has no such magnetic field, and its upper atmosphere is completely exposed to the solar winds. As a result, the solar wind can strip parts of Mars' atmosphere away, and Mars has a very thin atmosphere today because of this. It is still thick enough to stop the solar winds from making contact with Mars' surface, and the solar winds are instead deflected around the planet. Mars' early atmosphere is thought to have been as thick or thicker than Earth's today, but even over a time of 4.5 billion years, the rate at which Mars' atmosphere is leaked currently would not account for that much loss of atmosphere. But these new readings from NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission can account for that loss with the solar storm that Mars is hit with.
Analysis: It's interesting to learn more about the discoveries NASA is making about the past of our solar system. It's impossible to know if we'll ever be sure about how Mars got the way it is, but these new findings contribute a great deal to the possibilities. It's ominous to think that Earth could ever end up the way Mars is today. That possibility makes Mars' history all the more interesting in my opinion.
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