The Lockheed Martin-built Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft has detected aurora-like atmospheric lights and a dust cloud at orbital altitude during its mission for NASA‘s Mars Exploration Program.
NASA said Wednesday MAVEN’s Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument and Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph observed the two phenomena in the spacecraft’s fourth month on Martian orbit.
The dust cloud, which has been present throughout MAVEN’s operations, is located between 93 miles and 190 miles from the planet’s surface and has an unknown composition and source, the agency noted.
Meanwhile, the MAVEN team observed the ultraviolet aurora on Mars’ northern hemisphere for five days before Dec. 25 and was similarly attributed to electrons in the atmosphere.
NASA said the spacecraft’s Solar Energetic Particle instrument earlier detected an increase in energetic electrons, which could point to the sun as the source of the particles causing the atmospheric lights.
The MAVEN team will present these findings at this week’s 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.