UAE Business: Emirates Mars Mission discovers new Martian aurora – Gulf Digital News

UAE Business: Emirates Mars Mission discovers new Martian aurora – Gulf Digital News

The Emirates Mars Mission, the first interplanetary exploration undertaken by an Arab nation, has released stunning new images of Mars’ enigmatic discrete auroras.

This follows 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 the solar wind.

The observations include a never-before seen phenomenon, dubbed the ‘sinuous discrete aurora’ by the EMM team, a huge worm-like aurora that extends halfway around the planet.

New potential

“When we first imaged Mars’ discrete aurora shortly after the Hope probe’s arrival at Mars in 2021, we knew we had unveiled new potential to make observations never before possible on this scale, and we took the decision to increase our focus on these auroras,” said Emirates Mars Mission Science Lead, Hessa Al Matroushi.

“We can obtain nearly whole-disk, synoptic snapshots of the atmosphere to investigate atmospheric phenomena and interactions. It means we are seeing discrete auroral effects on a massive scale and in ways we never anticipated.”

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.

Bright and extensive

Imaged when Mars was