A diagram of the European Space Agency’s Mars orbiter ExoMars detecting a green glow above the atmosphere. (ESA)
[The Epoch Times, April 1, 2024](Epoch Times reporter Linda compiled and reported) The first astronauts to explore the north and south poles of Mars in the future may hike across dusty ice under the weird green light emitted high in the Martian atmosphere. layer.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars orbiter ExoMars recently discovered that the atmosphere around Mars’ south pole emits a strange green light during the long polar night. This green light comes from oxygen atoms reuniting high in the Martian atmosphere, releasing energy in the process.
The ExoMars probe recently discovered a bright green light over the South Pole of Mars, where it’s late winter. This “nightglow”, also known as “airglow”, looks a bit like an aurora.
Mars has its own aurora; every planet in the solar system has one, and probably every planet in the universe with a magnetic field and atmosphere. Even Mercury has strange X-ray auroras.
In the summer regions of Mars (currently the Northern Hemisphere), summer sunlight injects energy into carbon dioxide molecules high in the Martian atmosphere. The extra energy causes the carbon and oxygen atoms that form the molecule to split apart, leaving loose carbon and oxygen atoms floating high in the atmosphere.
Eventually, prevailing winds carried these loose atoms to the winter side of Mars, where, during the still, dark winter nights, the atoms stabilized enough to form chemical bonds again. Individual oxygen atoms combine to form oxygen molecules O₂, and in the process they release part of their energy in the form of green light.
On November 9, planetary scientist Jean-Claude Gerard of the University of Liège in Belgium and his colleagues reported in “Nature·AstronomyThe findings were published in the journal. Gerald and colleagues said in a recent paper that nightglow might even be bright enough for future Mars polar explorers to see it on a clear night.
Nightglows also occur on Earth, but are usually not bright enough to be seen from the ground. The best way to see Earth’s nightglow is from the side: If you could fly to the International Space Station and look toward Earth’s horizon, you’d see it. ◇#
Editor in charge: Fang Xiayan
