jasper halekas says it's part of the "big picture" research on mars, finding evidence that it may not have always been such a terrible place to live. "there might have been water flowing around and atmosphere, and it actually might have been a place where living organisms could have thrived. so the question is, how do you get from that to where it is today?"halekas is in charge of the solar wind ion analyzer instrument, one of 9 experiments on the maven spacecraft. he says that experiment is tied directly to uncovering the mystery behind locating the existing water on mars, and finding out where the rest of it disappeared to. "one of the places that water may come from is the atmosphere. so, by understandin g the atmosphere and its circulation and where it's going, we might be able to better nail down where the water is coming from, how much of it there is still, and how much of it has gone out into space and is lost forever." halekas says the mission's been approved for another earth year...that's equal to a half year on plane that crashedin egypt hinges on the source of the sound ca

scientists have been wondering how and why mar's climate changed.univeristy of iowa professor jasper halekas says this discovery is significant because if nasa sends a man to mars, we now know the challenges they would face. halekas spoke in a panel discussion today about the first findings from nasa's "maven" mission.the goal of the mission is to find out how much of mars' atmosphere and water have been lost to space. earlier this year - nasa determined it is likely that liquid water exsisted on the planet, but now mars is a dry, desert planet with a thin atmosphere and would quickly halekas says they were able to determine the suns solar winds have bee removing mars' atmosphere very slowly. "we're reporting that a significant amount of the atmosphere is being lost to space. and not only that, it's not being lost at a constant rate. it's being lost in bursts and it looks like it's being lost by the energy of the sun." sun."we'll have more on this discovery and how halekes got involved with maven tonight on the cbs 2 news ten at ten. covering the corridor in iowa city marissa scott cbs 2 liv

mars' climate changed from warm and wet to cold, dry and desert- like.u-i associate professor jasper halekas says nasa's "maven" mission has now provided an answer. answer. "we're reporting that a significant amount of the atmosphere is being lost to space."halekas is one of several scientists studying mars.he says it all started 12 years ago when he was getting his ph.d at the university of california-berkeley. berkeley. "i happened to be at the right place at the right time." now, he says, the team can confirm that the sun's solar wind has been removing mars' atmosphere and changing its climate. climate. "the sun constantly puts out a stream of both sunlight and charged particles. charged particles flow out a million miles an hour. we call this the solar wind and it blows on mars and all other planets."he says one day mars may *not* have an atmosphere.although scientists say they know there are large amounts of carbon dioxide replenishing the atmosphere, it's not enough to replace what's being lost--making the future of mars unknown. "i like to think of mars as a leaky bucket. "it's not be

associate professor jasper halekas is involved with the agency's maven mission. the goal is to monitor the sun's effects on the atmosphere of mars and measure how fast atmospheric particles are escaping into space. researchers say this will give them a better idea of what mars was like a long time ago. halekas says they've only scratched the surface. ""one earth year actually only equals half of a mars year, so we haven't even seen all the seasons of mars. we've seen spring and summer, but not fall and winter, depending on what hemisphere you're talking about." halekas says the maven mission has been approved for funding for at least another year. a cedar rapids teen is working to get others get involved in organized sports... it's part of an effort to make a difference for kids who may not otherwise have the opportunity. plus, the iowa hawkeyes have won 9... and they're placing 8th in the latest national polls. a prime position with 3 games left in the regular season... a deep chat with marc morehouse of the gazette is coming up... one cedar rapids teenager is d

associate professor jasper halekas is involved with the agency's maven mission. the goal is to monitor the sun's effects on the atmosphere of mars and measure how fast atmospheric particles are escaping into space. researchers say this will give them a better idea of what mars was like a long time ago. halekas says they've only scratched the surface. ""one earth year actually only equals half of a mars year, so we haven't even seen all the seasons of mars. we've seen spring and summer, but not fall and winter, depending on what hemisphere you're talking about." halekas says the mission has been approved for funding for at least another year. wednesday is veterans day and the university of northern iowa has events scheduled all this week. today they will have a military and veteran student services open house starting at 11 a-m. tomorrow u-n-i will host a campus wide scavenger hunt. that starts at 5 o'clock tomorrow evening. then on wednesday the r-o-t-c they will also have a veterans day program starting at 3:30 p-m. events will continue every day this week. toni

according to a university of iowa professor -- the new (jasper halekas, maven team member) "the processes that at mars willlinform us about the other planets in our solar system, and maybe even beyond our solar system." a lot of this research coming from maven, the first spacecraft to study mars' atmosphere. the maven team already has approval for another year of research. its we're wrapping up today in iowa with the forecast from storm track a developing storygolf club clubhouse. we've confirmed no one was hurt but multiple fire departments are on the scene. kwkw's amanda giibert is there -- she tells us the fire is out and the smoke is now starting to clear. the golf course is well-known throughout iowa. is back with another check of your storm track sevevn forecast. gusty and cooler today with highs in the upper 40s to mid 50s. we stay around normal through the weekend with high pressure tracking through but the next chance of rain may affect veterans day events. thanks for joing us, the today shoois next and we'' be back in 25 minutes with more news and weather. have a great day. >>>

mars' climate changed from warm and wet to cold, dry and desert- like.u-i associate professor jasper halekas says nasa's "maven" mission has now provided an answer. answer.. "we're reporting that a significant amount of the atmosphere is being lost to space."halekas is one of several scientists studng mars.he says it all started 12 years ago when he was getting his ph.d a athe university of california-berkeley. berkeley. "i happened to be at the right place at the right time." now, he says, the team can confirm that the sun's solar wind has been removing mars' atmosphere and changing its climate. climate. "the sun constantly puts out a stream of both sunlight and charged particles. charged particles flow out a million miles an hour. we call this the solar wind and it blows on mars and all other planets."he says one day mars may *not* have an atmosphere.although scientists say they know there are large amounts of carbon dioxide it's not enougugto replace what's being lost--making the future of mars unknown. "i like to think of mars as a leaky bucket. "it's not being lost at a constant rate. i

associate professor jasper halekas is involved with the agency's maven mission. the goal is to monitor the sun's effects on the atmosphere of mars and measure how fast atmospheric particles are escaping into space. researchers say this will give them a better idea of what mars was like a long time ago. halekas says they've only scratched the surface. ""one earth year actually only equals half of a mars year, so we haven't even seen all the spring and summer, but not fall and winter, depending on what hemisphere you're talking about." halekas says the mission has been approved for funding for at least another year. wednesday is veterans day and the university of northern iowa has events scheduled all this week. today they will have a military and veteran student services open house starting at 11 a-m. tomorrow u-n-i will host a campus wide scavenger hunt. that starts at 5 o'clock tomorrow evening. then on wednesday the r-o-t-c will have a flag ceremony at 10:50 in the morning. they will also have a veterans day program starting at 3:30 p-m. events will continue ev