According to NASA, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe has successfully completed 1,000 orbits around Mars after four-and-a-half months into its one-year primary mission. As per researchers, it is the first mission to understand the Martian upper atmosphere.

Rich Burns, MAVEN project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland said that already MAVEN is generating amazing science results. Adding to it, Burns said they are keen to know that what they understand from this mission about the Martian atmosphere's past and present.

"The spacecraft and instruments continue to work well and we are building up a picture of the structure and composition of the upper atmosphere of the processes that control its behavior and of how loss of gas to space occurs", said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's principal investigator.

As per the researchers, the aim of MAVEN is to find out the role that loss of atmospheric gas to space played in altering the Martian climate through time. MAVEN is examining the whole region from the top of the upper atmosphere all the way down to the lower atmosphere with an aim to understand the connections between these regions.

According to the researchers, two unexpected phenomena have been observed by MAVEN in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere.

MAVEN that was launched on November 18, 2013 is in its science mapping orbit and it has been collecting data since the commencement of its primary mission on November 16 last year. MAVEN was launched to the Red Planet from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.