Mysterious Dust Cloud and Aurora Spotted on Mars
NASA’s newest Mars orbiter discovers unexpected things in the planet’s atmosphere.
THE WOODLANDS, TexasStrange things are being found in Martian skies. Today, scientists announced that a spacecraft in Mars orbit spotted two surprises: an unusual aurora in the planet’s lower atmosphere and a mysterious dust cloud.
“We don’t know where the dust is coming from,” said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, which made the discoveries.
The dust cloud doesn’t appear to be related to the mysterious plumes spotted on the planet in 2012.
Jakosky and his colleagues announced the findings today at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The conference features a full day of sessions describing early results from MAVEN, which arrived at Mars in September 2014 and is studying the planet’s atmosphere.
Auroras have been found on
