Astronomers Stunned as Epic Mars Aurora Covers Entire Planet

Astronomers have finally captured visible auroras dazzling the skies above Mars — and they're unlike anything we see on Earth. The spectacular discovery was made using NASA's Perseverance rover. Thanks to careful planning by the researchers, the robotic explorer gazed up to the heavens just in time to catch a powerful solar storm slamming into Mars' thin atmosphere, creating a diffuse green glow that could be seen across the entire planet, dwarfing its Earth counterparts. The findings, published in a new study in the journal Science Advances, mark the first time that the Red Planet's auroras have been captured in light visible to the human eye. More than that, it's also the first time that an aurora has been seen from the surface of another planet. "This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars' surface," said study lead author Elise Knutsen at the University of Oslo in Norway in a stat ... Read full article.