On March 18th 2015, NASA announced that its MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft which is currently orbiting Mars, had discovered a cloud of dust orbiting the red planet. The dust cloud was discovered at an altitude of between 93 to 190 miles above the surface of Mars.
The cloud was detected using the MAVEN spacecraft's Langmuir Probe and Waves instrument and was found to be denser at lower altitudes. While scientists are at a loss to explain just how the cloud of dust managed to reach altitude, some are suggesting that the dust may have come from one of Mars' two moons, Phobos or Deimos. There appears to be more of the dust on the day side, which faces the sun than on the night side of Mars.
Other possible suggestions for the mysterious cloud, are that the dust may be the result of the solar winds, or the dust could possibly be the result of meteor showers or passing comets. Scientists have ruled out debris from comet Siding Spring, which passed near Mars on October 19th 2014, which is a month after spacecraft MAVEN arrived at the planet, which was on September 21st 2014. And, MAVEN had observed the dust cloud upon its arrival.
The NASA spacecraft MAVEN also observed an aurora unlike any seen before on Mars. Mars doesn't have an electromagnetic field like we have on Earth, so auroras on the planet are usually seen above patches of the surface that do have a magnet field. However, for five days in December 2014, MAVEN observed a dim aurora spread across the northern hemisphere. NASA says that the lights appeared at about the time a storm of charged particles from the Sun was passing by.
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