• About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Cookie policy (EU)
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Video
  • Write for us
Today Headline
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • POLITICS
    • News for today
    • Borisov news
  • FINANCE
    • Business
    • Insurance
  • Video
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • ENTERPRISE
  • LIFESTYLE
    • TRAVEL
    • HEALTH
    • ENTERTAINMENT
  • AUTOMOTIVE
  • SPORTS
  • Travel and Tourism
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • POLITICS
    • News for today
    • Borisov news
  • FINANCE
    • Business
    • Insurance
  • Video
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • ENTERPRISE
  • LIFESTYLE
    • TRAVEL
    • HEALTH
    • ENTERTAINMENT
  • AUTOMOTIVE
  • SPORTS
  • Travel and Tourism
No Result
View All Result
TodayHeadline
No Result
View All Result

Bizarre sinuous discrete aurora detected in Mars atmosphere – Livescience.com

May 5, 2022
in Tech
0
Bizarre sinuous discrete aurora detected in Mars atmosphere – Livescience.com
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

On clear Martian nights, long, snake-like ribbons of light may streak through the sky for thousands of miles. It’s a pretty sight, according to new observations from the United Arab Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) — and it represents a strange new type of aurora never seen before on any planet.

Auroras — also known on Earth as the southern or northern lights — occur when charged particles from solar wind collide with molecules in a planet’s atmosphere. Several different types of auroras have been detected on Mars, including planet-wide “diffuse auroras,” which glow faintly through the entire Martian sky during intense solar storms, as well as patchy “discrete auroras,” which only glow above certain spots of Martian crust thought to contain magnetized minerals, according to EMM.

This new type of aurora — which EMM researchers dubbed a “sinuous discrete aurora” — seems to be a strange mishmash of the others, the researchers said.

Visible only above certain tracts of the Martian landscape, the new type of aurora appeared during a recent solar storm when charged electrons swept over the Red Planet’s thin atmosphere. As those particles surged down magnetic field lines in the atmosphere, long tendrils of light zigzagged across the sky from the planet’s dayside to its nightside, spanning half of the planet’s diameter, the EMM researchers said in an emailed statement.

Related: Earliest documented aurora found in ancient Chinese text

The cause behind this newly discovered Martian aurora remains a mystery.

A visual guide showing the three types of aurora that hae been discovered on Mars so far.

A visual guide showing the three types of aurora that hae been discovered on Mars so far. (Image credit: Emirates Mars Mission)

“The sinuous discrete aurora was a shocking discovery that in many ways has us scratching our heads and going back to the drawing board,” Rob Lillis, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley who works on the Emirates Mars ultraviolet spectrometer instrument, said in the statement. “We have ideas, but no solid explanation for why we are observing intense aurora of this shape and at planetary scales.”

The EMM’s Hope orbiter, which has been surveying the planet from above since February 2021, observed the new aurora in ultraviolet light, using an instrument called EMUS (Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer). According to the researchers, this type of light — which is invisible to the naked eye — shows where energetic solar wind electrons smashed into atoms and molecules in Mars’ upper atmosphere, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) above the planet’s surface.

While scientists have detected discrete auroras above certain patches of the Red Planet before, never have they seen one on such a “massive scale,” the team said. The solar storm that propelled charged particles into the Martian atmosphere at a faster and more turbulent pace than usual is likely a key factor in this type of long, sinuous aurora, the researchers added.

Solar storm occurrences are predicted to increase over the next several years as the sun approaches its solar maximum — the period of greatest activity in the sun’s 11-year cycle — in 2025. The EMM’s Hope orbiter will continue watching for these newly discovered auroras in the meantime, while scientists dig into archival data collected by NASA and the European Space Agency to hunt for more examples of the snake-like streaks over Mars.

Originally published on Live Science.

Previous Post

Sen. Warren calls out Fidelity over its bitcoin 401(k) push – Fox Business

Next Post

About As Cold As It Gets: The Webb Telescopes Cryocooler – Hackaday

Related Posts

Call Centres
Tech

Interesting Things To Know About Call Centres

Call centres are things that...

Read more
InSight landers final selfie on Mars shows why its mission is ending – CNN
Tech

InSight landers final selfie on Mars shows why its mission is ending – CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/25/world/nasa-mars-insight-lander-final-selfie-scn/index.html

Read more
Sharkcano view from space shows an undersea volcano erupting – Space.com
Tech

Sharkcano view from space shows an undersea volcano erupting – Space.com

https://www.space.com/sharkcano-undersea-volcano-satellite-image

Read more
Joe Biden Wants to Put a Japanese Astronaut on the Moon – Gizmodo
Tech

Joe Biden Wants to Put a Japanese Astronaut on the Moon – Gizmodo

https://gizmodo.com/joe-biden-artemis-nasa-japan-moon-space-exploration-gat-1848977108

Read more
Boeings Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth, wrapping up critical test mission – The Verge
Tech

Boeings Starliner spacecraft returns to Earth, wrapping up critical test mission – The Verge

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/25/23138395/boeing-cst-100-starliner-nasa-undocking-landing-oft-2

Read more
Load More
Next Post
About As Cold As It Gets: The Webb Telescopes Cryocooler – Hackaday

About As Cold As It Gets: The Webb Telescopes Cryocooler - Hackaday

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Sex/Life fans notice a HUGE editing fail in Adam Demos’ nude shower scene –

Sex/Life fans notice a HUGE editing fail in Adam Demos’ nude shower scene –

Horror as goat gives birth to ‘humanoid kid’ with baby-like face

Six times actors really romped in sex scenes that make 365 DNI look tame

Six times actors really romped in sex scenes that make 365 DNI look tame

Trisha Paytas Destroyed The Internet By Posting Her Toilet Paper Asshole

Trisha Paytas Destroyed The Internet By Posting Her Toilet Paper Asshole

Comment assurer ton rôle de parent avec plus de patience

Comment assurer ton rôle de parent avec plus de patience

Southern Style Coleslaw

Southern Style Coleslaw

My garden is a fawn nursery

My garden is a fawn nursery

Dog-Friendly Hikes with a Picture-Perfect View

Dog-Friendly Hikes with a Picture-Perfect View

About Us

Todayheadline the independent news and topics discovery
A home-grown and independent news and topic aggregation . displays breaking news linking to news websites all around the world.

Follow Us

Latest News

Comment assurer ton rôle de parent avec plus de patience

Comment assurer ton rôle de parent avec plus de patience

Southern Style Coleslaw

Southern Style Coleslaw

Comment assurer ton rôle de parent avec plus de patience

Comment assurer ton rôle de parent avec plus de patience

Southern Style Coleslaw

Southern Style Coleslaw

My garden is a fawn nursery

My garden is a fawn nursery

  • Real Estate
  • Education
  • Parenting
  • Cooking
  • Travel and Tourism
  • Home & Garden
  • Pets
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • About

© 2021 All rights are reserved Todayheadline

No Result
View All Result
  • Real Estate
  • Education
  • Parenting
  • Cooking
  • Travel and Tourism
  • Home & Garden
  • Pets
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • About

© 2021 All rights are reserved Todayheadline

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Posting....