Why did Mars dry out? NASA space telescope reveals insights

According to Hammel, the Webb telescope’s observations will be made available to all those who are interested in conducting future studies of their own. “Webb will return extremely interesting measurements of chemistry in the Martian atmosphere,” she explained. “And most importantly, these Mars data will be immediately available to the planetary community to enable them to plan even more detailed Mars observations with Webb in future cycles.”

The Webb telescope is said to be designed for detection of extremely faint and distant targets, like stars that are located many light years away from Earth. Since it has such delicate and highly sensitive instruments onboard, Martian observations will need to be carefully designed to avoid any problems. One scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Stefanie Milam, also notes that other functions will also be tested. “Very importantly, observations of Mars will also test Webb’s capabilities in tracking moving objects across the sky, which is of key important when investigating our solar system,” she said.