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Diverging Reports Breakdown:
Perseverance Mars rover becomes 1st spacecraft to spot auroras from the surface of another world
The car-sized Perseverance rover spied auroras in Mars’ skies in mid-March. It’s the first-ever spacecraft to witness such a light show from the surface of another planet. Auroras occur when charged particles from the sun collide with molecules in planetary atmospheres. Mars doesn’t have a global magnetic field anymore, it disappeared long ago and caused the once-wet world to dry out.”This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars’ surface,” said lead author of a study about the news, Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway. “We are thrilled to have finally gotten a sneak peek of what astronauts will be able to see there some day,” said co-author Shannon Curry, a research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado. “A better understanding of auroras and the conditions around Mars that lead to their formation are important as we prepare to send human explorers there safely,” added Katie Stack Morgan, a scientist for the Perversance project. “This was a fantastic example of cross-mission coordination,” said MAVEN Principal Investigator Shannon Curry. “It’s a really exciting time to be a space scientist,” said another study author, Christina Lee of University of California, Berkeley, the space weather lead for NASA’s MAVEN Mars orbiter. “I’m excited to see what the future holds for us in space,” added another study’s co- author, Jennifer Kinsman of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “There’s a long way to go before we know what we can observe with our orbiters on Mars,” said Lee. Read full article
NASA rover spies first visible aurora on Mars in ‘exciting discovery’
NASA rover spies first visible aurora on Mars in ‘exciting discovery’Future astronauts on Mars could witness the stunning cosmic display, researchers say. The spectacular display, known as the Northern Lights in Earth’s northern hemisphere, was captured by NASA’s Perseverance Rover. It is the first time aurora visible to the naked eye has been captured on the Red Planet – and researchers say the finding confirms that future Mars astronauts could witness aurora displays. The green aurora was spotted after Mars was battered by a powerful solar storm last year. Large explosions of activity from the Sun, called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), throw out huge amounts of charged particles, which are captured by magnetic fields and collide with gas molecules in the atmosphere in an event called a geomagnetic storm. The Sun produced a massive CME that led to ‘stunning’ auroras across the Solar System, including on Mars, on March 15, 2024, the Sun’s birthday. Earlier this week, NASA released images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope of stunning auroras on Jupiter that glow ‘hundreds of times brighter’ than the Northern lights on Earth. The images were captured with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023 by a team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester. The findings will help to develop scientists’ understanding of the upper atmosphere and how it is heated and cooled, said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Read full article
NASA rover spies the first aurora at Mars that’s visible to the human eye
European and US scientists reported that the green aurora in the dusty Martian sky was generated by a solar storm last year. Previous auroras observed at Mars appeared only in the ultraviolet, but this one was in the visible wavelength. It resulted from a solar flare in March 2024 that was followed by a coronal mass ejection of plasma from the sun that was directed toward Mars. This was the first time an aurora had been reported from the surface of a planet other than Earth, the researchers noted in their study. The latest observations show that forecasting of northern and southern lights is now possible at Mars, allowing scientists to study space weather, said University of Oslo’s Elise Wright Knutsen, whose research appeared Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. The Perseverance rover has been exploring Mars’ Jezero Crater since 2021, collecting dust and rock samples. Read full article
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance captured a green aurora in the visible area. It is the first time to ..
NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance captured a green aurora in the visible area. It is the first time to capture an aurora that can be seen with the human eye. Aurora occurs when high-energy particles from space rain down on the upper atmosphere, both on Earth and Mars. On Earth, these particles are moved to the poles by the Earth’s magnetic field. But on Mars, there is no planetary magnetic field that induces particles to the pole. This means that you can see aurora anywhere on Mars. It will be a clue to study the composition and movement of the Martian atmosphere. The research team explained, “This aurora is believed to have been caused by the corona emission from intense solar storms,” adding, “An aurora appeared on Mars three days after the solar storm on March 15 last year” It landed on Mars in 2021 and has continued its exploration. It’s 3 meters long and weighs 1,026 kilograms, which is the size of a small car. It runs on six wheels and contains seven scientific equipment and 23 cameras. Read full article
First aurora photo from Mars shows green glow in the sky
First aurora photo from Mars shows green glow in the sky. Mars doesn’t have an organized planetary magnetic field like Earth, so auroras can appear anywhere. Scientists connected the green aurora’s appearance to high-energy particles sent by a solar storm eruption. All planets with atmospheres in the Solar System experience auroras, created by the interaction of magnetic fields with high- energy particles from the sun. The presence of visible aurora opens a new avenue for the study of space weather events at Mars, according to a new study published May 14 in the journal Science Advances. The study was led by Elise Wright Knutsen of the University of Oslo in Norway and documented the first visible Aurora on Mars in 2024.. NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured video of a stunning aurora while onboard the ISS. The aurora appeared on March 18, 2024, to a coronal mass ejection from an intense solar storm. Read full article
The Martian Night Sky Was Seen Turning Green in a Stunning First
An aurora gently glowing in wavelengths visible to the human eye has been captured on Mars for the first time – and a robot was the only one to see it live. What it recorded opens new ways to study Mars. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. The confirmation that visible auroras on Mars exist opens up new, hopefully simpler and cheaper, ways that we can study these processes,” physicist Elise Wright Knutsen of the University of Oslo explained to ScienceAlert. The best time to try and catch an aurora on Mars is right after a particularly energetic solar outburst, such as a coronal mass ejection that you need to be ready to act quickly to act on. The Perseverance rover sat ready with its eyes peeled on 18 March 2024, as the night sky over Jezero Crater turned a faint, luminous green. Researchers were looking for an excess of green light in the sky at 557:7-nanometer wavelength – the wavelength of oxygen-ionized ionized glow. The researchers were able to detect the light, and a team of scientists were at the helm ready to get the necessary observations to pivot to pivot and get to the source of the green light. This was not really a simple matter, though. Most of the visible-light instruments on Mars are designed for making observations during the day, not for looking for a really faint glow in theNight sky. This is the first detection of this green emission, but observations of auroras can tell us a lot about how the Sun’s particles are interacting with Mars’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere. The red planet has, at best, a patchy and feeble magnetic field that hangs around only certain localized areas, where magnetized minerals in the crust preserve remnants of the magnetic field Mars once had. The atmosphere of Mars is very thin, roughly 2 percent of the density of Earth’s. Read full article
Global Perspectives Summary:
Global media portray this story through varied cultural, economic, and political filters. While some focus on geopolitical ramifications, others highlight local impacts and human stories. Some nations frame the story around diplomatic tensions and international relations, while others examine domestic implications, public sentiment, or humanitarian concerns. This diversity of coverage reflects how national perspectives, media freedom, and journalistic priorities influence what the public learns about global events.
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Sources:
- Perseverance Mars rover becomes 1st spacecraft to spot auroras from the surface of another world
- NASA rover spies first visible aurora on Mars in ‘exciting discovery’
- NASA rover spies the first aurora at Mars that’s visible to the human eye
- NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance captured a green aurora in the visible area. It is the first time to ..
- First aurora photo from Mars shows green glow in the sky
- The Martian Night Sky Was Seen Turning Green in a Stunning First
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-05-perseverance-mars-rover-captures-visible.html