One thing is clear from the Nasa presentation thus far- it is more difficult to distil the atmospheric findings from Maven down than September's announcement that water had been discovered on Mars. The process of atmospheric escape currently being described could well have more significant implications for earth, but it is fairly complex. Nick Allen explains: The solar wind normally travels at one million miles per hour. Earth has a strong global magnetic field which shields it. The upper atmosphere of Mars is more exposed. It was thick enough to stop the solar wind hitting the surface but gases in the atmosphere can reach escape velocity. The solar wind varies and when it was stronger more of the Martian atmosphere was exposed. Nasa said there had been "dense bubbles of extremely energetic particles" which doubled the speed of the solar wind up to two million miles per hour. That increased the loss rate of Mars' atmosphere by a factor of 10 to 20. #MAVEN Reveals Speed of Solar Wind Stripping Mars' Atmosphere https://t.co/ikxwCaxz2g VIDEO: https://t.co/TZfqX29S80 pic.twitter.com/i0ggJc4lhM — NASA's MAVEN Mission (@MAVEN2Mars) November 5, 2015