Scientists at NASA, the European Space Agency, and several other institutions are providing evidence that brilliant and natural displays of light, predominantly seen in high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, also streak across the Mar’s skies. Although experts have understood that the phenomena does occur in many places besides Earth, up until now, it has remained unclear whether or not the auroras could actually be seen by a human visiting the Red Planet.
The reason for this is because auroras are caused by a “complex interplay” between charged solar particles, atmospheric gases and the planet’s magnetosphere. Although advanced technologies like the Hubble Space Telescope can provide scientists with visualizations of the auroras, the nature of the light can make it invisible to the human eye – much like how we cannot see infrared light. Evidence also reveals that some of Mar’s auroras glow in waves of Ultraviolet light, another spectrum that humans, for the most part, are not capable of seeing.
However, according to a statement by Arnaud Stiepen, who works with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS), Mar’s aurora is significant because of “…how deep in the atmosphere it occurs.”
One aurora in particular, occurring in 2014, was “unusually energetic;” consequently, it is now referred to as the “Christmas Lights” of Mars. Given the intensity of the light, and how close it was to the surface of the Red Planet, scientists believe that it could have been witnessed by a person on Mars, specifically by a child or young adult.
New information from MAVEN orbits also reveals that Martian aurorae are a fairly common occurrence. Experts have attempted to simulate the lights in a the lab, and the results of the experiment have been published in Planetary and Space Science journal.
According to Cyril Simon Wedlund of Aalto University,”The study indicates that the strongest colour in the Martian aurorae is deep blue. Green and red also occur, just like on Earth. Thus, the first visitors of the Red Planet may actually be in for quite a display while traversing its rocky surface.
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