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NASA Confirms First Visible Aurora Spotted from Mars' Surface

The Perseverance rover captured the faint green glow during a solar storm, marking a breakthrough in Martian atmospheric studies.

The planet Mars is shown in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view taken May 12, 2016. NASA/Handout via Reuters ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY/File Photo
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© Knutsen et al., Sci. Adv. 11, eads1563 (2025)
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Overview

  • NASA's Perseverance rover detected the first visible-light aurora on Mars on March 18, 2024, using its Mastcam-Z camera and SuperCam spectrometer.
  • The aurora was caused by charged particles from a coronal mass ejection following a March 15, 2024, solar flare, interacting with Mars' thin atmosphere.
  • Unlike Earth, Mars' lack of a global magnetic field creates diffuse, uniform auroras visible across the entire sky, regardless of latitude.
  • This discovery, published in *Science Advances* on May 14, 2025, opens new avenues for studying space weather and its impact on Mars' atmosphere.
  • Future missions, including NASA's Escapade orbiters, aim to create global aurora maps, enhancing models critical for human exploration on Mars.