After the NASA mission to Mars, UAE has also sent a separate spacecraft to the red planet. The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) has sent an exploratory probe called Hope which has been taking images of the atmosphere of Mars. Recently, it has come across a strange phenomenon after a solar storm struck the planet that has confused even the brave minds at NASA. It seems that, while the northern lights are magical, they are not exclusive to our planet. You read that right. Researchers have recently observed “mysterious worm-like” aurora on Mars. Amidst the researches and theories of the existence of life on Mars, auroras, similar to the Earth’s northern lights, were visible on a land which is over 40 million miles or 55 million kilometres away from us. This extraordinary sighting was quite “shocking” , as explained by the researchers.
The Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) probe, Hope, photographed the aurora. After the probe entered its orbit of Mars, it started the imaging. Differing from the original plan, the researchers chose to focus on these “discrete” auroras quite closely. “We knew we had unveiled [a] potential to make observations never before possible on this scale,” stated the EMM Science Lead, Hessa Al Matroushi. Due to this, almost after a year, the researchers discovered a “huge, worm-like” aurora that, as observed, extends halfway around the planet. This was a phenomenon that was never observed before. Thereafter, the researchers are calling this discovery a “sinuous discrete aurora”.
The primary aim of Hope, which was guided and assisted by a team at NASA, is to study the atmosphere of Mars. So, the images of auroras on Mars provide essential information about the interactions between magnetic fields and solar wind on
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