US space agency NASA regularly shares stunning pictures from our universe, which leaves space lovers mesmerised. NASA's social media handle is a treasure trove for those who love watching educational videos and fascinating images showcasing Earth and space. Now, in its recent post, the space agency delighted its Instagram followers with an animated GIF showing aurora on the night side of Mars. The rare phenomenon was captured by the US space agency's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument on NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) orbiter.
“The purple color in this video represents aurora on the night side of Mars, as detected by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument on NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) orbiter. The brighter the purple color, the more pronounced the presence of an aurora. This view, taken as waves of energetic particles from a solar storm reach Mars, pauses at the end, when the most energetic wave of particles arrives and overwhelms the instrument with noise,” NASA wrote in the caption of the post.
Take a look below:
NASA's MAVEN captured this spectacular display of purple light on the Red Planet between May 14 and May 20 this year. In the caption, the space agency explained that the way these auroras occur is different from the ones seen on our planet.
“Our home planet is protected from charged particles by a strong magnetic field, which is normally confined to areas near the polar regions. (Solar maximum is the reason behind the recent polar fields seen south of Alabama.) Mars lost its internally generated magnetic field in the ancient past, so there is no protection from the onslaught of energetic particles. When charged particles hit the Martian atmosphere, polar fields are formed that engulf the entire planet,” the space agency explained.
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NASA shared this post a few days ago and since then it has received more than 261,000 likes and many reactions. One user wrote, “Wow! This is incredibly beautiful.” Another wrote, “Wow, this is amazing.”
“This is incredible! Any plans from NASA to photograph the aurora from the surface? Or will that have to wait for a future manned mission?” a third commented. “But the aurora is mostly green, right? This looks completely different,” added user Apnea.
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