The eerie Green “Nightglow” of Mars in NASA Research

NASA'S Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission discovered new images of Mars. It showed an unexpected and weird look of Mars. 

Credits: NASA/MAVEN/Goddard Space Flight Center/CU/LASP

MAVEN has been studying on Mars since it started orbiting Mars in 2013. 

"MAVEN's images offer our first global insights into atmospheric motions in Mars' middle atmosphere, a critical region where air currents carry gases between the lowest and highest layers," Nick Schneider, a professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder, Colorado, said in a NASA statement.

These images captured by MAVEN released that the Atmosphere pulses three times per night during the Spring and fall. 

And this “Nightglow” or “The Planet's Ultraviolet Nighttime Glow” is brightest on Cold Pole of Mars.

Credits: NASA/MAVEN/Goddard Space Flight Center/CU/LASP

“The ultraviolet glow comes mostly from an altitude of about 70 kilometers (approximately 40 miles), with the brightest spot about a thousand kilometers (approximately 600 miles) across, and is as bright in the ultraviolet as Earth’s northern lights,” said Zac Milby, also of LASP.

This Nighttime Glow is created when the winds carry gases down to dense region of the atmosphere. This movement speeds up some reaction and it creates Nitric Oxide which is responsible for the glow. And this glow is visible in Ultraviolet Light.

Credits: NASA/MAVEN/Goddard Space Flight Center/CU/LASP

"MAVEN's main discoveries of atmosphere loss and climate change show the importance of these vast circulation patterns that transport atmospheric gases around the globe and from the surface to the edge of space." Sonal Jain, a research associate at LASP, said in the statement.

    Also Scientists say that this Glow is also influenced by Solar Heating and Volcanic Activity on Mars.

Credit/Source: NASA✓

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