Looking at a Martian Aurora Borealis

mike_1138 writes "According to new research, 'The Martian auroras differ from those on Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune...' I've seen the Borealis here on Earth, and they're beautiful. I can't imagine what they must look like in a Martian night."

Comments

Aurora Borealis? NO! Aurora Australis!

[Bananatree3]

FTA:Auroras were detected from Terra Cimmeria in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

southern hemispher auroras are called Aurora Australis. Nothern Hemisphere auroras are Aurora Borealis.

Re:Aurora Borealis? NO! Aurora Australis!

[ink_13]

The terms "Borealis" and "Australis" are somewhat meaningless on Mars. The correct term is simply "Aurora". It's the editors who made the goof.

Re:Aurora Borealis? NO! Aurora Australis!

[zakezuke]

The terms "Borealis" and "Australis" are somewhat meaningless on Mars. The correct term is simply "Aurora". It's the editors who made the goof.

Borealis, Boreas - The great north wind; greek god of. aka Aquilo
Australis, Auster - The great south wind; roman god of. aka Notus

Aurora - latin / middle english - Dawn

If you want to be anal about the subject, Aurora Aquilonis would be a bit more consistent with the Roman theme. But both words would apply on other planets just as well as they do on earth as it means the dawn north or south wind.

Re:Hrm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Mars's magnetic field is weak -- indeed, it does not have a global field created by an active core, but rather weak patches -- link

Here on Earth, the visible aurora has little to do with the magnetosphere either. While ionized particles from the solar wind are funneled towards the magnetic poles of the Earth (imagine spiralling along the field lines), the actual light is caused when atmospheric gas is bombarded by these particles, kicking them into higher energy states. These energy states tend to be unstable, so the molecules drop down a state and the energy is released as a photon. The specific colour released has to do with the particule kind of gas that is discharging.

In case of slashdotting...

[Spy der Mann]

use coral cache.

http://www.ghiapet.homeip.net.nyud.net:8090/~jowen s/AuroraTemp/

Re:Magnetic Field?

[TeacherOfHeroes]

Planetary magnetic fields are caused by the activity in the interior of the planet. From Wikipedia:

The Earth's core, however, is hotter than 1043 K, the Curie point temperature at which the orientations of electron orbits within iron become randomized. Such randomization tends to cause the substance to lose its magnetic field. Therefore the Earth's magnetic field is caused not by magnetised iron deposits, but mostly by electric currents (known as telluric currents).
Another feature that distinguishes the Earth magnetically from a bar magnet is its magnetosphere. At large distances from the planet, this dominates the surface magnetic field. In addition, the magnetized elements within the planetary core are undergoing rotation and are not static.
Electric currents induced in the ionosphere also generate magnetic fields. Such a field is always generated near where the atmosphere is closest to the Sun, causing daily alterations which can deflect surface magnetic fields by as much as one degree.

As the planet ages, the core cools, and the resultant magnetic field decreases. Cehck out the full wikipedia article

Re:I can't imagine what they must look like on Mar

[SeaDour]

Aurora on Jupiter: http://msslhx.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/~npm/Web_Pages/Visito r_Pages/aurora/Jupiter_aurora.gif

Aurora on Saturn: http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/pages/general/news/satur ns_aurora/assets/saturn_aurora.jpg

Uranus and Neptune probably have them too, but are too far away to see them clearly from Earth-based telescopes.