The Northern Lights is volatile and fantastic. But Elise Wright Knutsen, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oslo, has become used to it.
“I’m Norwegian, so the Aurora is a big thing here,” she said. “You grow up a bit about it happens over your head.”
But catching her first glimpse of the Aurora on another planet hit differently.
“I cried a bit,” she said.
It is known that Mars Auroras has – a glow that is normally produced when energetic particles from the sun find the atmosphere of a planet. But they were only observed by spacecraft in a job to a groundbreaking, and only in ultraviolet – a light wave length invisible to the naked eye. But with the help of precise space weather forecast, NASA’s perseverance rover And some perseverance by a team led by Dr. Knutsen, a visible green Aurora was spotted on the red planet for the first time and danced above oker mountains last March.
As reported In a study published on Wednesday In the Journal Science Advances, a violent eruption of the sun of the sun was expected to crash, just three days later against Mars. By ordering perseverance to look up at exactly the right moment, an explosion of green speckles was recorded on the rover cameras.
Scientists expected such aurora, which was thought to exist for a long time, that was noticed by spacecraft that studied the Mars atmosphere. “I didn’t really expect it to be seen by one of the robbers,” said James O’donoghue, a planetary astronomer at the University of Reading in England who was not involved in the new study.
Since Auroras are the expression of the atmosphere of a planet that responds to space weather, this discovery unlocks a new way to study the physics and chemistry of the Mars airs. It also shows the ability of scientists to follow the evolution of solar storms, which can be dangerous (and even deadly) to spacecraft and astronauts.
But for now the team is especially happy that he has finally found the elusive, visible Aurora of Mars. “It was so satisfying,” said Dr. Craft.
Auroras can be spied on worlds and moons in the solar system. Although some appear as visible light, most glimpse in both ultraviolet or infra-red. The same can be said Van Mars’ Own Ultraviolette Aurora.
Dr. Knutsen suspected that a visible green Aurora, not in contrast to that of the earth, could also be seen on Mars. After all, the required atomic oxygen in the atmosphere was present – and when energetic particles from the sun struck that oxygen, it should be expected that a green glow will appear.
Fortunately Dr. Also craft part of the passage team. The primary mission of that rover is to look at and taste, rocks that can have signs of old microbial life. But she wondered if the robot cameras could also look at heaven and see an aurora.
One camera, Mastcam-Z, could see all suspicious green lights. But with the atmosphere of Mars that is material differently than the earth, different towering phenomena can create a jade-like glow. That is where another of the eyes of perseverance, supercam, would come into play: the instrument can identify the chemistry of whatever it looks, including that of each auroral luminescentia.
Dr.’s plan Knuting was to wait for an eruption of solar energy, use prediction models to see if, and if it would hit Mars and become perseverance to look up. Her team started their search in May 2023 and after several failed attempts finally met green gold in 2024, a year in which The sun was very hyperactive.
On March 15, the sun unleashed a powerful coronal mass droppings, a buckshot of charged particles that would be expected to hit Mars on March 18. Certainly enough, the rover cameras registered a shower of green particles made from surprised atomic oxygen.
Dr. Crafting, when he looked at the data files of perseverance, it soon realized that she was one of the first people to see a visible Aurora on Mars: “A black horizon and a soft glowing green sky,” she said, which described the picturesque display.
“It was on my birthday of all things,” Dr. Crafts. “It was a great day.”
- Advertisement -
