A probe sent by the United Arab Emirates to study the Martian atmosphere has caught and brought us mesmerizing images of the beautiful natural light show i.e Auroras. The views on the red planet are as beautiful as, if not more, those on Earth.
Before the formal start of the Hope orbiter’s science mission, an instrument installed on the probe caught the aurora, which is known to be a phenomenon that is very difficult to study. The images were a delight, as they were not part of the planned observations on the mission.
Images released recently show the auroras standing out in the shape of bright structures set against the dark Martian night sky.
In a statement given to Space.com reports: a space.com, Justin Deighan, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado and deputy science lead of the mission, said, “They’re not easy to catch, and so that’s why seeing them basically right away with [Emirates Mars Mission] was kind of exciting and unexpected.” “It’s definitely something that was on our radar, so to speak, but just looking at our first set of nighttime data and saying, ‘Hey, wait a second — is that? — it can’t be — it is!’ — that was a lot of fun.”
The Ultraviolet Spectrometer installed on the probe was originally meant to study the massive halo of hydrogen and oxygen that surrounds the Red Planet, which eventually dissipates into open space.
“We did anticipate that the instrument would have the potential to do this,” Hessa Al Matroushi, the mission’s science lead, said in a statement. “It wasn’t designed to do it. But because we do have a mission that is targeting global coverage and we’re looking at Mars from different sides and very frequently within the atmosphere, that enabled us to have such a measurement of discrete auroras, which is very exciting.”
Also Read: JUTE: A PROMISING SOURCE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS FOR HUMAN WELFARES
