Mars just revealed a new type of glowing night sky

Space · Published 29 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For years, scientists theorized that Mars might host faint green auroras similar to Earth's. However, the Red Planet lacks a global magnetic field to funnel solar particles to its poles. Instead, it produces unique phenomena that light up the entire atmosphere in ways we are only just beginning to see.

In March 2024, near the peak of the current solar cycle, NASA's Perseverance rover made history by detecting visible-light auroras from the surface of Mars. This was a significant milestone because, while scientists had long theorized about green light auroras on the Red Planet, they expected them to be much fainter and harder to capture than those on Earth. The detection confirmed that these lights could potentially be visible to future astronauts walking on the Martian surface.

The mechanism behind Mars' auroras differs fundamentally from Earth's. On our planet, a global magnetic field funnels solar particles toward the poles, where they collide with atmospheric gases. Because Mars lacks this protective shield, it experiences different phenomena, such as solar energetic particle (SEP) auroras. These occur when super-energetic particles from the Sun strike the Martian atmosphere directly, causing a reaction that makes the entire night sky glow.

The MAVEN spacecraft first discovered these SEP auroras in 2014, but only in ultraviolet light from orbit. The recent breakthrough involved capturing them in visible light from the ground. By employing models, University of Oslo scientists calculated exact ideal positions for both the Mastcam-Z camera and SuperCam spectrometer on the Perseverance rover. This allowed them to capture spectra and images during a specific solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME) on March 15, 2024.

These observations are crucial for understanding how different planets interact with solar activity. While Earth's auroras are concentrated at the poles due to magnetism, Martian SEP auroras demonstrate how high-energy particles can illuminate an atmosphere across a much broader area when that magnetic protection is absent.

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