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Mars It may be the red planet, but its atmosphere glows green.
Using the European Space Agency (ESA) Exomars Scientists noticed a trace of tropical gas (TGO). Mars atmosphere It glows green for the first time ever, in the visible light spectrum.
The effect is called airglow (or dayglow or nightglow, depending on the time), and it occurs in… Land, also. While they share some similarities with the northern lights (or aurora borealis) here on our planet, they are a different phenomenon and have different causes. Night glow, in particular, “occurs when two oxygen atoms combine to form an oxygen molecule,” According to the European Space Agency. On Mars, this occurs at an altitude of about 31 miles (50 km). In comparison, aurora borealis occur when charged particles are emitted from… sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field.
Scientists have suspected Mars has airglow for about 40 years, but the first observation only occurred a decade ago by the European Space Agency. Mars Express Orbiter, which discovered this phenomenon in the infrared spectrum. Then, in 2020, scientists observed this phenomenon in visible light using TGO, but in Martian daylight rather than at night. Now, we saw this phenomenon at night via TGO.
Related: Citizen scientists discover patterns in clouds above Mars
“These new observations are unexpected and interesting for future missions to the Red Planet,” Jean-Claude Girard, a planetary scientist at the University of Julège, said in an article. ESA statement. “The intensity of the nightglow in the polar regions is so great that simple and relatively inexpensive instruments in Mars orbit can map and monitor atmospheric flows. A future ESA mission could carry a camera for global imaging. In addition, the emission is intense enough to monitor atmospheric flows.” They can be observed during the polar night by future astronauts in orbit or from the Earth of Mars.
Studying Mars’ nightglow, which will continue as part of the TGO mission, will also give scientists insight into the processes occurring in the Martian atmosphere. “Remote sensing of these emissions is an excellent tool for exploring the composition and dynamics of the Martian upper atmosphere at a distance of 40 to 80 km. [25 to 50 miles]“This region is inaccessible to direct methods of measuring composition using satellites,” said Benoît Hubert, a researcher at the Laboratory for Planetary and Atmospheric Physics (LPAP) at the University of Liège.
Studying the Martian atmosphere could also help design future spacecraft headed to the Red Planet. A better understanding of its density could help mission planners build satellites that can withstand the drag created by the Martian atmosphere, for example, or design parachutes that can lower payloads to the Red Planet’s surface.
The team’s research was published in the journal Nature astronomy On November 9th.
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