UAE's Hope space probe discovers intense aurora on Mars
text_fields
Representational.
London: The United Arab Emirates' Hope space mission has discovered a new strong form of aurora on the planet of Mars, reportedly beyond what is known so far, Arab News reported.
The mission arrived on Mars in February 2011, and a solar storm also happened simultaneously. The aurora is believed to be produced by that storm, but it was believed that such phenomena would not occur since the planet have no magnetic field.
The aurora display looked like "worm-like tendrils of ultra-violet light snaking halfway around Mars in the planet's upper atmosphere," Arab News reports.
Rob Lillis, a scientist from the University of California, said that the sinuous discrete aurora was a shocking discovery. They have no solid explanation for the phenomena, the intense aurora of planetary scales.