There’s a new look at the phenomenon of Mars, thanks to a collaboration between two space probes orbiting the planet. According to Science Alert news agency, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) and the UAE’s Hope Probe have collaborated to study the ultraviolet proton auroras that glow high in the Martian atmosphere.
The new research reveals that these daily events are not always diffuse, unimpressive, and evenly distributed, but are highly dynamic and variable, and contain microscale structures.
According to planetary scientist Mike Chavin of the University of Colorado Boulder, “Observations from the EMM (Emirates Mission to Mars) indicate that the aurora was so diffuse and disorganized that the plasma environment around Mars must already be turbulent, to the point that winds directly affect the atmosphere. upper where we observe an auroral emission”. Adding, “By combining EMM auroral observations with MAVEN measurements of the auroral plasma environment, we can confirm this hypothesis and determine that what we were observing was essentially a map of where the solar wind rains on the planet.”
Proton auroras, the most common auroras on the Red Planet, were first described in 2018, as seen in MAVEN data. They form quite similar to the aurora borealis on Earth, however, because Mars is an entirely different planet, and lacks the intrinsically energetic magnetosphere like Earth, the end result is unique to Mars.
The red planet closest to a global magnetic field is a fragile planet caused by the hums of charged particles that slow down as they hit the atmosphere. Although weak, they are generally sufficient to deflect the many high-speed protons and neutrons raining down from the Sun.
Proton auroras form when positively charged protons in the solar wind collide with Mars’ hydrogen shell and ionize, stealing electrons from hydrogen atoms to become neutral. This charge exchange allows neutral particles to bypass the shock of the magnetic field around Mars, causing precipitation in the upper atmosphere and emitting ultraviolet light.
This process was thought to reliably produce uniform auroral emissions over the course of Martian days. But new observations show otherwise. Rather than the expected smooth profile, data from the Hope probe show that aurora borealis are sometimes irregular, indicating that there may be unknown processes during the formation of these aurorae.
This is where Maven comes in. NASA’s orbiting probe carries a full suite of plasma instruments to study the solar wind, the magnetic environment, and thermal ions in space around Mars.
Mars’ atmosphere and fickle evolution took simultaneous measurements as Hop saw the strange aurora, and the collected data allowed scientists to reconstruct the reasoning behind it.
In their paper, the scientists wrote that “by examining several observations by the UAE Mars mission of irregular auroras that have different shapes and locations, and combining these images with plasma measurements taken by NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and EvolutioN missions, we conclude that different processes may have lead to irregular production of .twilights.” “This irregular aurora is mainly caused by plasma turbulence which in some circumstances leads to direct precipitation of the solar wind across the entire day side on Mars,” he added.
In other words, the rare chaotic interaction between Mars and the solar wind is responsible for the irregular auroras, although its effect on the surface of Mars is not clear.
However, there could be atmospheric effects and long-term water loss. Without a global magnetic field, Mars continues to lose both.
Interestingly, the smooth, irregular proton auroras may help us understand at least one of them, in which hydrogen is formed in part by water in the Martian atmosphere.
The researchers say it will take “a lot of future data and modeling studies to unravel the full effects of these conditions on the evolution of the Martian atmosphere.”
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