Atmosphere of Mars and southern hemispheres. Mars's temperature difference greatly influences the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, because warmer air can contain more moisture. This, in turn, affects the production of ozone-destroying hydrogen radicals. In early 2016, Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected atomic oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars. This was the first time in forty years it was detected, the last time being the Viking and Mariner missions in the 1970s. Molecular nitrogen (N) is present in the atmosphere at 1.9%. Measurements by various robotic missions, and analyses of Martian meteorites, show that the atmosphere is enriched in
Atmosphere of Venus environment. Microbes in the thick, cloudy atmosphere could be protected from solar radiation by the sulfur compounds in the air. The solar wind may provide a mechanism for the transfer of such microbiota from Venus to Earth. The Venusian atmosphere has been found to be sufficiently out of equilibrium as to require further investigation. Analysis of data from the Venera, Pioneer, and Magellan missions has found the chemicals hydrogen sulfide (HS) and sulfur dioxide (SO) together in the upper atmosphere, as well as carbonyl sulfide (OCS). The first two gases react with each other, implying that something must produce them.