NASA finds Mars hosts Earthlike auroras via miniature Dungey cycle
NASA just discovered that Mars gets auroras in much the same way Earth does.
Turns out, even though Mars doesn't have a big magnetic field like ours, it still has a mini version of Earth's magnetic process (the Dungey cycle) that lets charged particles from the Sun light up its skies.
This gives scientists a fresh look at how Mars's magnetism works.
MAVEN finds ancient Martian lava magnetized
The MAVEN spacecraft helped solve this puzzle. Its instruments found that ancient lava on Mars trapped bits of magnetism billions of years ago, enough to create local magnetic fields today.
Lead author Shaosui Xu called the discovery unexpected, while MAVEN principal investigator Shannon Curry said it's a big step for understanding how Mars interacts with space weather, super important for planning future missions to the Red Planet.