UAE's Hope Mars orbiter captures stunning new aurora on the Red Planet

The Emirates Mars Mission, Hope Probe, has captured stunning new images of the enigmatic discrete auroras of the Red Planet. These aurora observations are some of the brightest and most extensive yet seen by the orbiter, the mission says.

The spacecraft imaged the Martian aurora when the planet was experiencing the effect of a solar storm, resulting in a faster, more turbulent stream of solar wind electrons than usual.

The discovery of new mysterious Martian aurora has opened up new areas for investigating Mars' highly dynamic plasma environment, EMM said.

The #EmiratesMarsMission has released stunning new images of the enigmatic discrete auroras of Mars. They follow a new series of revolutionary observations that promise new answers about the interactions between Mars' atmosphere, the planet's magnetic fields and the solar wind. pic.twitter.com/fzjE18DHIO

— وكالة الإمارات للفضاء (@uaespaceagency) April 28, 2022

Designed to study the dynamics in ​the Martian atmosphere, UAE's Hope Mars orbiter entered orbit around the planet on February 9, 2021. The spacecraft carries three scientific instruments to provide the first complete picture of the Martian atmosphere.

Earlier this month, UAE's Hope Probe mission and NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), the agency's first mission dedicated to observing the Martian atmosphere and its escape, agreed to exchange science data as they continue to study the Red Planet's atmosphere.