                 APOD: 2017 October 6 - Global Aurora at Mars

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
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                                2017 October 6
                                      [2]
                            Global Aurora at Mars
    Image Credit: MAVEN [3] , LASP, University of Colorado [4] , NASA [5]

Explanation: A strong solar event last month triggered intense global aurora
at Mars [6] . Before (left) and during (right) the solar storm, these
projections show the sudden increase in ultraviolet emission from martian
aurora, more than 25 times brighter than auroral emission previously detected
by the orbiting MAVEN [7]  spacecraft. With a sunlit crescent toward the
right, data from MAVEN's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph is projected in
purple hues on the night side of Mars globes simulated to match the
observation dates and times. On Mars, solar storms can result in planet-wide
aurora because, unlike Earth [8] , the Red Planet isn't protected by a strong
global magnetic field [9] that can funnel energetic charged particles toward
the poles. For all those [10] on the planet's surface during the solar storm,
dangerous radiation levels were double any previously measured by the
Curiosity rover. MAVEN is studying whether Mars lost its atmosphere [11] due
to its lack of a global magnetic field.

                  Tomorrow's picture: Eclipsosaurus Rex [12]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [24] (MTU [25] ) & Jerry Bonnell [26]
                                  (UMCP [27] )
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  [5] http://www.nasa.gov/
  [6] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/
large-solar-storm-sparks-global-aurora-and-doubles-radiation-levels-on-the-
martian-surface
  [7] ap140926.html
  [8] ap170909.html
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  [10] ap150516.html
  [11] https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/
how-to-give-mars-an-atmosphere-maybe/
  [12] ap171007.html
  [13] ap171005.html
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