NASA wants your help to solve an enduring Mars mystery

If you have time on your hands, but still want to help scientists solve one of the red planet's enduring mysteries, then you should consider getting involved yourself.

The question of why Mars' atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth's is intriguing as evidence points to the distant planet once having a thicker atmosphere.

The air pressure on the planet is so low that liquid water can be seen in the atmosphere. Billions of years ago, lakes and rivers covered Mars, suggesting the atmosphere must have been thick.

A key part of the study will be to find out what causes the formation of martian clouds.

NASA would love to hear from you if you come up with any scientific theories on the matter, but assisting NASA doesn't involve that. The space agency wants you to join its Cloudspotting on Mars project and look for clouds on Mars.

There is a lot of data for people to analyze, according to JPL. The data from the Mars Climate Sounder instrument allows scientists to see how temperatures and clouds change over different seasons and from year to year.

The team wants you to help.

The atmosphere of the planet is studied in a way that is invisible to the eye. NASA wants you to help them spot the arches in the clouds that show up as distinct arches.

Scientists will be able to more efficiently determine where in the atmosphere they occur when participants look through the data on the citizen science platform Zooniverse.

According to Zooniverse, identifying these particular clouds will allow scientists to create maps of where they form, determine what they are made of, and see how they change throughout the day.

A better understanding of how martian clouds form and how they affect the planet's climate and atmosphere should come from this.

NASA boffins did the work, if you were wondering why they didn't just develop an app to do it. Humans are able to carry out the task quicker. They hope that the data from the current project will help them to build a more effective program.

You can find more information on how to get involved on the website. Do you want to help out on a project involving clouds on Jupiter instead of martian clouds?

There is a recommended video.