MACH News | January 4, 2022

Understanding Mars as an Exoplanet

The MACH Center’s effort to understand Mars as an exoplanet generated news articles around the nation. The MACH team is excited to see our work starting conversations, and we look forward to more.

Using Mars as a model for terrestrial planets throughout our galaxy is an excellent way to understand the models for atmospheric loss and planetary evolution. By creating a scenario in which Mars, or a similar planet, orbits another star we can determine how host stars affect their potentially habitable planets. This research will help refine atmospheric models and develop criteria for searching for and analyzing potentially habitable exoplanets.

• Phys.org – Scientists envision what Mars would look like as an exoplanet
• Daily Galaxy – “Exoplanet Mars” –Identifying Habitable Planets Beyond Our Solar System
• Universe Today – Would Mars be More Habitable if it Orbited a Red Dwarf?
• Tech Explorist – What Mars would look like as an exoplanet