Planet Earth’s various aurora borealis are among the most amazing sights to be seen on the planet.
But the Earth is not the only celestial body that witnesses such phenomena, as the aurora borealis was also seen on Mercury, some moons around Jupiter, and even on a comet, in addition to Mars, which many may not expect to have such a phenomenon due to its lack of a magnetic field, which plays a role Major in the formation of the aurora borealis on Earth.
For years, scientists have tried to discover how the auroras occur on Mars. Now, scientists may be able to discover how this phenomenon is formed.
Physicists have studied discrete aurora borealis, a light phenomenon in the sky that occurs mostly during the night in the southern hemisphere of the red planet, but also occurs on Earth.
Usually, auroras are seen on Earth and many other celestial bodies when their magnetic fields collide with the solar wind, but Mars currently lacks a magnetic field, which made scientists puzzled by the presence of the aurora borealis on the Red Planet.
Mars is believed to have had a global magnetic field at one time, but it has faded, according to a report published by BGR.
The physicists report that discrete auroras on Mars are governed by the interaction between the solar wind – the continuous jets of charged particles from the Sun – and magnetic fields generated by the crust at southern latitudes on Mars. The scientists discovered that it is the nature of this local interaction between the solar wind and the crustal magnetic fields that leads to the separate aurora.
Physicists led by the University of Iowa have explored small pockets of solar magnetic fields on Mars.
These pockets help in the formation of the aurora borealis of Mars. This phenomenon occurs mostly in the southern hemisphere of Mars.
Zachary Gerazian, the study’s author, explained how the team created the first detailed study of how solar wind conditions affect the auroras on Mars.
“Our main finding is that within the strong cortical field region, the rate of occurrence of aurorae mostly depends on the direction of the magnetic field of the solar wind. While outside the strong cortical field region, the rate of occurrence is mostly dependent on the dynamic pressure of the solar wind,” he said.
The team used data from more than 200 observations made by NASA’s Mars Atmospheric Study (MAVEN) spacecraft.
MAVEN was launched in 2013 and has been used several times for Mars research.
The team found that Mars auroras occur most frequently in the southern hemisphere of the red planet. In addition, they believe that the local interaction of the solar wind and these small pockets generate a light show. This is the reason for the appearance of these ultraviolet rays.
By looking at the observations, the researchers were able to paint a fairly clear picture of what causes the aurora borealis. However, it’s interesting to think that something so dependent on our planet’s global magnetic field might live in those tiny pockets of Mars.