MAVEN Spacecraft Makes Astounding New Discovery

Dust found coming from Mars raises speculation 

March 21, 2015

The Dust

As Atmospheric researchers struggle to understand more about what the condition of the planet Mars is, an unusual dust cloud appeared just beyond the surface of the mysterious planet. NASA Spacecraft MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) discovered this dust cloud extending from the planet’s surface up to 1,000 kilometers, as the spacecraft orbited the plant.

LLUSTRATION COURTESY NASA, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO

However, this unusual finding was not the only new discovery that spacecraft MAVEN uncovered on their last orbit. It was reported that an aurora appeared glowing above Mars' northern hemisphere. The craft arrived on the planet this past September to study the upper atmosphere of Mars and fly through the planet’s domain. One of the tools on the craft named the LangmuirProbe and Wave Instrument is an electron measurement tool that measures the electrons densities and temperatures. This instrument picked up small scents of plasma that will form when the dust hits the spacecraft and turns into vapor.

Bruce Jakosky who reported on the event in the Woodlands, Texas at the Lunarand Planetary Science Conference on March 18, says that, “This is the first discovery of a layer of dust or debris at orbital altitudes around Mars.” Smaller-scale impacts have been observed in other parts of the Solar System by other spacecraft and probes, but never around Mars.

Its cause is unclear. It could be that the dust was kicked up from some unknown source on the planet, or that it wafted over from one of Mars’ moons, Phobos or Deimos.

The Aurora

The Aurora diffuse, known as the “Christmas Lights,” is a complete anomaly to the planet. Unlike Earth, who regularly sees the occurrence of the Northern Lights, Mars has a much smaller magnetic field and does not exhibit this occurrence often. The first pattern of these lights surrounding the surface of Mars was reported in 2005 by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express team. At this time, the lights were distributed in patches over the planet’s known magnetic field.

However, on MAVEN’s expedition, the craft saw an additional aurora that was distributed across the span of the entire northern hemisphere of Mars. Its appearance coincided with a storm of charged particles, which stemmed from the Sun and moved past Mars. It is suggested that this storm, which moved through Mars’ atmosphere and down just above the surface may have caused these “Christmas Lights.”

Image courtesy of slate.com artwork by Lockheed Martin 

Physicist Jasper Halekas comments, “It’s not your grandfather’s magnetosphere.”
 

The Comet

MAVEN’s original goal or mission was to observe and study how Mars’ once thicker and denser atmosphere dissolved into the cold and thin atmosphere that surrounds Mars today. The planet was once shielded by a warm atmosphere that allowed it to retain water and now experiences a cold and much drier environment today.

Images courtesy of http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/ 

MAVEN was launched in November of 2013 and arrived at Mars in September of that year. Since its arrival, the spacecraft has monitored the planet’s atmosphere and recorded the passing of the Siding Spring comet, which littered the atmosphere with various particles in its wake. MAVEN found such particles as titanium, magnesium, iron, and other metals in enormous distributions.

Jakosky remarks that while a form of this formation is found on the Earth, “this is the first time the metal ion layer itself has been observed on Mars.” It is evident from this comet’s appearance that MAVEN has only begun to provide scientists with new information about Mars and this dust and aurora discovery is only the tip of the iceberg.