Dubai international, Airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi, July 5 The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Hope Mars Mission has snapped the most detailed pictures yet of the 'discrete nightside auroras' of the Red Planet, which scientists have struggled to study for decades.The ultraviolet emissions arise when solar wind runs into magnetic fields that emanate from Mars's crust. Charged particles then collide with oxygen in the upper atmosphere, causing it to glow, Nature reported.The mission, also called the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), is the first uncrewed, interplanetary satellite by the UAE.It arrived at Mars in February and started its official science run on May 23.The auroras was spotted by the Emirates Mars Ultraviolet Spectrometer, or EMUS, which is designed to study the thin, vast halo of hydrogen and oxygen surrounding Mars, not on its magnetism, so the aurora images came as a bonus."Seeing it has been just a gift," Hessa Al Matroushi, the EMM's science lead at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai, was quoted as saying."They're not easy to catch, and so that's why seeing them basically right away with EMM was kind of exciting and unexpected," Justin Deighan, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, told Space.com.The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft and NASA's MAVEN orbiter have both observed the discrete aurora, but they are not as detailed compared to Hope.But the EMM took "spectacular images", Nick Schneider, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, who is part of the MAVEN team, was quoted as saying to Nature."From my work on the topic, I immediately recognised the way the aurorae draw an outline around the last vestiges of Mars' decaying magnetic field. These images really capture the fact that Mars has lost its global field, the suspected cause of the disappearance of its earlier thick atmosphere," Schneider said.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Dubai InternationalFOLLOW

Dubai international, Latest News

Former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has issued a statement refuting multiple allegations that he fled Kabul carrying millions of dollars and offered an explanation for leaving abruptly after the Taliban entered the capital city. ...

Kabul, Sep 4 A United Arab Emirates (UAE) plane loaded with food supplies landed in the Hamid Karzai ... ...

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have named Kiwi pacer Tim Southee as replacement for Pat Cummins for the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 season. ...

The United Arab Emirates will temporarily host 5,000 Afghan citizens evacuated from the country following the seizure of Kabul by the Taliban Islamist movement, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said. ...

New Delhi, July 30 Amazon Web Services (AWS) is now a $59 billion annualised run rate business, up ... ...

San Francisco, July 30 Despite posting a $100 billion-plus quarter third time in a row, e-commerce giant Amazon ... ...

New Delhi, July 28 Introducing ten limited edition fragrances for men and women, actor Rana Daggubati launched NAS ... ...

Abu Dhabi, July 5 The United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Hope Mars Mission has snapped the most detailed pictures ... ...