"Purple Rain": NASA's Mars Orbiter Detects Auroras On Red Planet

US Space Agency NASA regularly shares stunning images from our universe, leaving the space lovers mesmerised. NASA's social media handle is a treasure trove for those who love watching educational videos and fascinating images showcasing Earth and space. Now, in its recent post, the space agency delighted its Instagram followers with an animated GIF showing auroras across Mars' nightside. This rare phenomenon was captured by the US space agency's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument abroad NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) orbiter. 

"The purple color in this video shows auroras across Mars' nightside as detected by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument aboard NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) orbiter. The brighter the purple, the more auroras were present. Taken as waves of energetic particles from a solar storm were arriving at Mars, the sequence pauses at the end, when the wave of the most energetic particles arrived and overwhelmed the instrument with noise," NASA wrote in the caption of the post. 

Take a look below: 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NASA (@nasa)

NASA's MAVEN captured this stellar display of purple-coloured lights on the red planet between May 14 and May 20 this year. In the caption, the space agency explained that the way these auroras occur is different than those seen on our planet. 

"Our home planet is shielded from charged particles by a robust magnetic field, which normally limits auroras to regions near the poles. (Solar maximum is the reason behind the recent auroras seen as far south as Alabama.) Mars lost its internally generated magnetic field in the ancient past, so there's no protection from the barrage of energetic particles. When charged particles hit the Martian atmosphere, it results in auroras that engulf the entire planet," the space agency explained. 

Also Read | Who is Zara Shatavari, The Miss AI Candidate From India

NASA shared the post just a few days back and since then it has accumulated more than 261,000 likes and several reactions. "Wow! That's unbelievably beautiful," wrote one user. "Wow, that's amazing," expressed another. 

"That's incredible! Any plans from NASA to photograph the aurora from the surface? Or will that need to wait for a future human mission?" commented a third. "But aurora is mostly in green colour right? It looks completely different," said apnea user.