how auroras probably look on mars photo
Published on June 7th, 2015
0How Auroras Probably Look On Mars - Photo
NASA’s MAVEN mission has confirmed the emergence of a blue aurora that would have been truly spectacular to watch on the surface of Mars.
Data collected by Europe’s Mars Express satellite that orbited the red planet 1,000 times confirmed that these are the first auroras visible to the naked eye from the surface of Mars.
The first such aurora was observed in 2005 using SPICE imaging instrument aboard the Mars Express satellite of the European Space Agency, NASA researchers only now confirmed that it was related with this phenomenon.
Now, after doing some lab experiments and modeling, scientists are pretty sure that future settlers on Mars will be able to look up and admire extraterrestrial auroras. And it turns out that the red planet’s aurora is mostly blue, with some tinges of red and green.
How Auroras Probably Look On Mars
Scientists confirmed that that these cosmic lights - caused by charged particle beam, powerful solar energy and solar wind plasma interacts with the atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere of the planet - could be seen the human eye.
If auroras visible from Earth are generally red or green, auroras on Mars are predominantly blue.
MAVEN’s team explained in a statement that although the planet’s magnetic field is “off” with about 3.5 billion years, local pockets that have accumulated magnetic fields allow the formation of these phenomena in the southern hemisphere.
Source: Science Alert
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