In a first, scientists detect eerie green glow in night sky of Mars

In a first, scientists have detected a soft green glow in the night sky of Mars that can be seen with our human eyes.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission while orbiting around Mars spotted the Martian night sky filled with light in the optical spectrum.

As per the scientists, the light is so bright in the polar regions that there is a possibility of human explorers seeing it if the night sky is clear of clouds.

"These observations are unexpected and interesting for future trips to the Red Planet," stated planetary scientist Jean-Claude Gerard of the University of Liege in Belgium.

In the solar system's atmospheres, the nightglow has been a relatively common phenomenon. Scientists have seen infrared and ultraviolet nightglow in the night sky on Mars and have also observed dayglow caused by the atmospheric absorption and energy released from solar radiation in the visible spectrum on Mars.

However, "no nightglow spectrum has been observed so far in the visible domain," wrote the researchers. "Scattered solar light hinders such measurements from Earth's ground and no space-borne instrument has observed the Mars visible nightglow,” they added.

Gerard and his team, intrigued by the discovery of ultraviolet and infrared nightglow and ultraviolet and visible dayglow on Mars, looked into data gathered by Trace Gas Orbiter which pointed at the instruments at the edge of the atmosphere which found signs of nightglow across visible ultraviolet wavelengths.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Nightglow seen in the south pole during Martian winter

The visible nightglow was seen during the Martian winter at the south pole between altitudes of 40 and 60 kilometres (25 to 37 miles).

The researchers stated that this was a result of oxygen atoms which had combined into dioxygen (O2) after getting transported from the sunny Martian day and emitted a glow in the process – one which was bright enough that it was visible from the ground.

Watch:Scientists surprised by source of largest quake detected on Mars

"This O2 nightglow should be observable from a Martian orbiter as well as from the Martian surface with the naked eye under clear sky conditions. These observations pave the way to future global observations of the Martian atmospheric circulation with simpler lower-cost instrumentation,” the researchers wrote.

All varieties of atmospheric glows are tracers of atmospheric circulation, chemistry, and processes. The atmosphere of Mars is very thin and finding out what it contains will help scientists know why and where the rest of it went.

(With inputs from agencies)