Hope Probe discovers new enigmatic discrete auroras on Mars

Hope Probe discovers new enigmatic discrete auroras on Mars

Dubai: New images of glowing atmospheric lights over Mars, known as discrete auroras, were released by Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) today. The pictures were taken by the orbiting Hope Probe, following “a new series of revolutionary observations that promise new answers — and new questions — about the interactions between Mars’ atmosphere, the planet’s magnetic fields and its solar wind”. Dubbed ‘sinuous discrete aurora’ by the EMM team, the phenomenon is described as “a huge worm-like aurora that extends halfway around the planet”. “The sinuous discrete aurora consists of long worm-like streaks of energised electron emission in the upper atmosphere, extending many thousands of kilometres, stretching from the dayside into the nightside of Mars,” the EMM statement added. “(The pictures) were taken when Mars was experiencing the effect of a solar storm, resulting in a faster, more turbulent stream of solar wind electrons than usual. These aurora observations are some of the brightest and most extensive yet captured by the Hope Probe. They include elongated shapes, which may be caused by similarly elongated regions of electron energisation conditions in the magnetotail,” the team added. An aurora — which looks like a ghostly glow — is a natural phenomenon characterised by