Purple rain… purple rain :⁣

⁣The purple color in this video shows auroras across Mars’ nightside as detected by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument aboard NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) orbiter. The brighter the purple, the more auroras were present. Taken as waves of energetic particles from a solar storm were arriving at Mars, the sequence pauses at the end, when the wave of the most energetic particles arrived and overwhelmed the instrument with noise.⁣

The way these auroras occur is different than those seen on Earth. Our home planet is shielded from charged particles by a robust magnetic field, which normally limits auroras to regions near the poles. (Solar maximum is the reason behind the recent auroras seen as far south as Alabama.) Mars lost its internally generated magnetic field in the ancient past, so there’s no protection from the barrage of energetic particles. When charged particles hit the Martian atmosphere, it results in auroras that engulf the entire planet.⁣

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MAVEN took these images between May 14 and 20, 2024, as the spacecraft orbited below Mars, looking up at the nightside of the planet (Mars’ south pole can be seen on the right, in full sunlight). The MAVEN team is preparing to celebrate the spacecraft’s 10th year at Mars in September 2024.⁣

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Credit: NASA

#NASA #Space #Mars #SolarSystem #Storm #Maven #Spacecraft

 [ INFORMATION DATA: 14 June 2024 ]