NASA's Perseverance rover has made history by capturing the first visible light images of auroras on Mars from the planet's surface. This groundbreaking observation, made in Jezero Crater, occurred after a significant solar storm on March 15, 2024, when the sun emitted a solar flare and coronal mass ejection. The rover's instruments detected a green glow in the Martian sky, marking the first time such an aurora has been witnessed from the surface of another planet.
The aurora was observed using the Mastcam-Z camera and SuperCam spectrometer on Perseverance. These instruments were able to identify the specific wavelength of the green light emitted during the event. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a global magnetic field, causing auroras to appear across the entire planet rather than being concentrated at the poles.
This discovery, published in Science Advances, opens new avenues for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars. The observation provides valuable insights into the Martian atmosphere and its interaction with solar particles, crucial knowledge for future human missions. Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater in February 2021 and continues to explore the region for signs of past life.