Perseverance Detects Visible-Wavelength Aurora on Mars

Mars hosts various auroral processes despite the planet’s tenuous atmosphere and lack of a global magnetic field. To date, all aurora observations have been at ultraviolet wavelengths from orbit. In a new paper, planetary scientists describe the discovery of green visible-wavelength aurora, originating from the atomic oxygen line at 557.7 nanometers (nm), detected with the SuperCam and Mastcam-Z instruments on NASA’s Perseverance rover.

Mars hosts various auroral processes despite the planet’s tenuous atmosphere and lack of a global magnetic field. To date, all aurora observations have been at ultraviolet wavelengths from orbit. In a new paper, planetary scientists describe the discovery of green visible-wavelength aurora, originating from the atomic oxygen line at 557.7 nanometers (nm), detected with the SuperCam and Mastcam-Z instruments on NASA’s Perseverance rover.