Latest news with #MAVEN
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Scientists Have Clear Evidence of Martian Atmosphere 'Sputtering'
For the first time, scientists have caught a key driver of the ongoing erosion of the atmosphere of Mars in action. It took more than nine years' worth of satellite data, but a team led by planetary scientist Shannon Curry of the University of Colorado Boulder has finally detected unmistakable signs of atmospheric sputtering. This is, the researchers say, a crucial piece of the puzzle of how Mars lost both its atmosphere and its water. "These results provide a substantial step toward observationally establishing sputtering's role in the loss of Mars' atmosphere," the team writes in their paper, "and, hence, in determining the history of water and those implications for habitability over time." Atmospheric sputtering is thought to be one of the dominant mechanisms for atmospheric loss in the early Solar System, when the Sun was brighter and more active. It happens when ions are accelerated by the electric field of the Solar wind into the atmosphere of a body – like Mars – that is unprotected by a global magnetic field. The effect is a little bit like when a meteorite smacks into a planet: energy is transferred to the surrounding neutral medium, kicking it up in a spray. But for sputtering, some of the atmospheric atoms and molecules gain enough energy to achieve escape velocity, and off they go, flung into space on a new adventure. It's difficult to observe this process on Mars. It requires simultaneous observation of the flung neutral atoms, and either the ions that smacked into the atmosphere, or the electric field that accelerated them. It also requires simultaneous dayside and nightside observations of Mars, deep into its atmosphere. The only spacecraft with the equipment and orbital configuration to make these observations is NASA's MAVEN. The researchers carefully pored over the data collected by the spacecraft since it arrived in Mars orbit in September 2014, looking to find simultaneous observations of the solar electric field and an upper atmosphere abundance of argon – one of the sputtered particles, used as a tracer for the phenomenon. They found that, above an altitude of 350 kilometers (217 miles), argon densities vary depending on the orientation of the solar wind electric field, compared to argon densities at lower altitudes that remain consistent. The results showed that lighter isotopes of argon vary, leaving behind an excess of heavy argon – a discrepancy that is best explained by active sputtering. This is supported by observations of a solar storm, the outflows of which arrived at Mars in January 2016. During this time, the evidence of sputtering became significantly more pronounced. Not only does this support the team's finding that argon density variations at high Martian altitudes are the result of sputtering, it demonstrates what conditions may have been like billions of years ago, when the Sun was younger and rowdier, undergoing more frequent storm activity. "We find that atmospheric sputtering today is over four times higher than previous predictions and that a solar storm can substantially increase the sputtered yield," the researchers write. "Our results confirm that sputtering is occurring on present-day Mars and could have been the main pathway for atmospheric escape at Mars during the early epochs of our Solar System when the solar activity and extreme ultraviolet intensities were much higher." The results have been published in Science Advances. Chance X-Ray Discovery Reveals Mystery Object 15,000 Light Years Away SpaceX Starship's Latest Test Ends in Destruction Over Indian Ocean Star Caught Orbiting Inside Another Star in Bizarre First
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
First-Ever Auroras on Mars: Stunning pictures captured by NASA's Perseverance
Image credits: X/@konstructivizm Out of all the planets in the solar system, we have made significant progress in discovering and analysing Mars. The planet, which is 33.9 million miles from Earth, has shown potential signs of ancient life, past water activity, and unique geological discoveries such as elemental sulfur, carbonate minerals and quartz deposits. Now, a rare space weather alignment allowed NASA 's Perseverance rover to capture a glowing streak of green light dazzling above the Jezero crater on Mars. The display was captured on March 22nd, 2024, just some days after a powerful solar eruption struck Mars. It marked the first time an aurora was documented from the surface of another planet. These images confirm long-held predictions about Martian auroras and hint at a spectacle that could possibly rival that of Earth. How were Auroras on Mars captured? On March 15th, 2024, the Sun projected an X-class flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME). Travelling at a speed of millions of kilometres per hour, the plasma cloud carried a swarm of solar energetic particles (SEPs). On Earth, such solar storms create polar auroras by funnelling the charged particles into the global magnetic field. Since Mars lacks such a field, its entire atmosphere glows during such events. NASA X MAVEN Ultraviolet cameras on NASA's MAVEN orbiter had previously shown that SEPs create large, diffuse auroras high above the planet. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Perdagangkan CFD Emas dengan Broker Tepercaya IC Markets Mendaftar Undo Some models predicted that highly intense SEP storms could stimulate oxygen atoms to emit green light at 557.7 nanometres, which is the same wavelength that gives colours to many of Earth's auroras. To catch such a signal, engineers trained two rover instruments: the Mastcam-Z imager and the SuperCam spectrometer. 'This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars's surface,' said Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo and lead author of the study. A perfectly timed moment Image credits: X/@QuibellPaul While SEP storms are common, NASA has to select the right storm that would be creating the auroras. Thus, the space weather specialists at NASA's Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office monitor solar flares and feed them into computer models at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) to predict when an interplanetary shock will sweep past Mars. This alert is shared with missions in orbit and on the surface. 'The trick was to pick a good CME – one that would accelerate and inject many charged particles into Mars's atmosphere,' Knutsen said. Such an alert was shared on March 15 with MAVEN's space-weather lead, Christina Lee, who broadcast a Mars Space Weather Alert Notification to all active spacecraft. First-ever auroras captured on Mars Two days after the CME crashed into Mars, the Perseverance rover trained its cameras on the dark sky. SuperCam's spectrometer registered a crisp spike at 557.7 nm, exactly the wavelength of Earth's auroras, while Mastcam-Z captured faint emerald lights sweeping overhead. Since Mars, unlike Earth, does not have a global field, its lights are more planet-wide than limited to a certain area. "Perseverance's observations of the visible-light aurora confirm a new way to study these phenomena that's complementary to what we can observe with our Mars orbiters,' said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist for the rover. The study was published in Science Advances.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mars astronauts would be able to see colorful aurora lights during solar storms, scientists prove
For the first time, scientists know what aurora light displays on Mars could look like for Martian explorers. On Earth, the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, are created when energized particles from the Sun interact with our planet's magnetic field. While Mars is also blasted with the same space weather, the Red Planet lacks a magnetic field, creating a different phenomenon known as solar energetic particle (SEP) auroras. These were first discovered by NASA's MAVEN spacecraft more than a decade ago. SEPs happen when energized particles crash into the Martian atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to glow. However, until now, it hasn't been documented if these lights appear in the colors we see on Earth. The most common color of auroras on Earth is green, caused by oxygen atoms emitting light at a wavelength of 557.7 nanometers. According to NASA, scientists theorized that green-light auroras could also occur on the Red Planet but might be fainter than on Earth. What Is A Geomagnetic Storm? During the strong to extreme solar storms last spring and summer, University of Oslo researcher Elise Knutsen waited for the perfect conditions to try and prove this theory. First, Knutson's team figured out how NASA's Perseverance rover's SuperCam spectrometer and Mastcam-Z camera would need to be angled to capture an SEP aurora in visible light. Then they just had to figure out the timing for when a coronal mass ejection from the Sun might trigger such a display. They needed a strong CME that would send a lot of charged particles into the Martian atmosphere. Similar to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), which issues forecasts for space weather impacts on Earth, NASA has dedicated teams at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland tracking solar activity for possible impacts on NASA missions operating in space. See The Impacts An Epic Solar Storm Had On The Red Planet On May 15, 2024, the Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office sent out an alert for a coronal mass ejection that could produce a solar storm on Mars. A few days later, the CME arrived at Mars, creating the auroras seen in the photos from Perseverance above. According to the research team, the lights were exactly at an emission wavelength of 557.7 nm, producing green aurora. "This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars' surface," Knutsen said in a news release. Data from MAVEN and the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission also corroborated the SEP seen by the rover. The space agency said this multi-mission collaboration is a new way to study space weather on Mars. NASA said it's likely that if astronauts had been on the surface of Mars near the rover, they would have been able to see the glowing green article source: Mars astronauts would be able to see colorful aurora lights during solar storms, scientists prove
India Today
15-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Perseverance rover watched greenish glow in Martian skies for the first time
As the Sun unleashed one of the strongest eruptions in over two decades in 2024, the results were visible not just on Earth, but across the Solar Perseverance rover watched the impact felt by the Martian skies as they turned green from the solar storm that left the Sun on March 15, Sun produced a solar flare and an accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive explosion of gas and magnetic energy that carried with it large amounts of solar energetic particles. The first visible-light image of green aurora on Mars (left), taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on Nasa's Perseverance Mars rover. (Photo: Nasa) advertisement 'This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars' surface.' Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo had long theorised that green auroras also occur on Mars just as on Earth. Due to the Red Planet's lack of a global magnetic field, Mars has different types of auroras than those we have on team determined the optimal angle for the Perseverance rover's SuperCam spectrometer and Mastcam-Z camera to successfully observe the SEP aurora in visible light. "The trick was to pick a good CME, one that would accelerate and inject many charged particles into Mars' atmosphere,' said coronal mass ejection that left the Sun on March 15 struck Mars a few days later providing a light show for the rover to capture, showing the aurora to be nearly uniform across the coordinating the Perseverance observations with measurements from MAVEN's SEP instrument, the teams could help each other determine that the observed 557.7 nm emission came from solar energetic particles. 'Perseverance's observations of the visible-light aurora confirm a new way to study these phenomena that's complementary to what we can observe with our Mars orbiters,' said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist for said that a better understanding of auroras and the conditions around Mars that lead to their formation is especially important as space agencies prepare to send human explorers there safely.
ABC News
15-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
NASA's Perseverance rover spots first auroras from the surface of Mars
Auroras on Mars don't look quite like they do on Earth — but they still produce a weird and fascinating light show. NASA's Perseverance rover has snapped pictures of a visible-light aurora from the Martian surface. It's the first time an aurora has been observed from the surface of a planet other than Earth, and the first time visible auroras have been seen on Mars. The weak green light was photographed in March last year, with the pictures just released in a new study published in Science Advances. Auroras on Earth are formed by particles from the Sun interacting with the planet's magnetic field. But auroras have also been observed on nearly every other planet in the Solar System. The light show was first detected around Mars 20 years ago from space. Unlike Earth, Mars doesn't have a global magnetic field — instead, its magnetism is patchy and varies across the planet's surface. This means its auroras are caused by slightly different phenomena. One type of aurora Mars sees, called a solar energetic particle (SEP) aurora, comes from super-energised particles from the Sun hitting the Martian atmosphere directly. These have been observed in ultraviolet light before, from NASA's MAVEN instrument that orbits around Mars. But when the Sun emitted a solar flare and a coronal mass ejection (CME) in the direction of Mars last year, a team of researchers spotted an opportunity to see the auroras from the planet's surface. They scrambled to ready the Perseverance rover, which is trundling through Mars' Jezero crater. The team used computer models to predict when and where the aurora would be visible in the Martian sky, and what colour and intensity of light they could expect the rover to spot. They expected particles from the CME would react with oxygen atoms in the Martian atmosphere, causing a faint glow in a very precise shade of green. Elise Knutsen, a physicist at the University of Oslo and lead author of the study, said the team needed to pick a strong CME to test their models. 'When we saw the strength of this one, we estimated it could trigger an aurora bright enough for our instruments to detect,' Dr Knutsen said. Days after the solar flare, two instruments on Perseverance recorded the exact shade of green in Mars' sky the researchers had predicted. Hannah Schunker, a physicist at the University of Newcastle who wasn't involved in the research, called the study a "neat observation". "It's a nice test of the Martian atmosphere models — and also a little more indirectly, it can be used to test our models of the coronal mass ejections," Dr Schunker said. Disappointingly for future space travellers, it's unlikely the aurora would be as dazzling as those seen on Earth. "Even on Earth, when we observe auroras, they often look quite different to the beautiful images we see," Dr Schunker said. "The photographic images that are taken of the auroras on Earth are often exposed for some minutes, so you get these really bright, vivid colours. Whereas if you see it with your eyes, it doesn't look quite so bright and quite so vivid, although still impressive." Mars, meanwhile, has fainter auroras to start with: lacking Earth's magnetism, the solar particles produce less light when they crash into the planet's atmosphere. "There might be a detectable change in the atmosphere, but it would not be strong and it would not be very obvious to the eye," Dr Schunker said. While it might not be the best light show in the Solar System, the research will be useful for better understanding solar weather from different angles, according to Dr Schunker. "Mars is not aligned with Earth at the moment. So we would not have experienced this particular CME," she said. We might be able to expect more observations like this in coming months, she said, thanks to "solar maximum": the point in its roughly 11-year cycle when the Sun produces the highest number of flares and sunspots. This is why people on Earth have seen so many auroras in the past year, often much further away from the poles than they can normally be spotted. "We're approaching, or we're in the middle of, solar maximum at the moment. We never know if we've reached solar maximum until we're on the other side of it," Dr Schunker said.
