Thanks to new images of Mars taken during the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, scientists have examined the ultraviolet glow of the Red Planet's atmosphere in unprecedented detail. In addition, the MAVEN satellite was the first to capture the 'night glow' emitting nitric oxide and the circulation of winds at high altitudes. Information about this is published on the official NASA website.
According to Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at Boulder, hundreds of high-resolution photographs taken by MAVEN in recent months show the ultraviolet glow of Mars.
These images will be presented today, October 19, at a meeting at the American Department of the Astronomical Society of Planetary Sciences in Pasadena, which is being held in conjunction with the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC).
As explained by representatives of the space agency, the atmosphere on the night side of Mars emits light in the ultraviolet range due to chemical reactions that occur on its day side. Ultraviolet light from the Sun destroys nitrogen and carbon dioxide molecules, which causes the atoms produced by decay to be carried by high-altitude winds across the planet. On the night side of the Red Planet, winds move these atoms into the lower atmosphere, where oxygen and nitrogen collide to form nitric oxide. In this case, additional energy is released, expressed in ultraviolet light.
It should be noted that NASA experts knew about the existence of the night glow of the atmosphere of Mars before, but they could see this phenomenon for the first time only during the MAVEN mission. According to them, the stripes and spots displayed in the video, which was assembled from the images taken by the Martian satellite, are located precisely in those areas where the recombination is enhanced by the wind. Images from the MAVEN satellite make it possible to study the circulation pattern at an altitude of 60 – 100 km.
Ultraviolet photographs of the day side, which were captured during the Martian spring, will provide scientists with additional information to study the chemistry and global circulation of the atmosphere of Mars. Also, NASA experts were able to observe the formation of clouds over four giant Martian volcanoes. According to scientists, clouds are the key to understanding the balance of energy and water vapor reserves on Mars. It follows from this that observations of clouds are of great importance in understanding the seasonal and diurnal behavior of the atmosphere.
Sources: NASA
