Visible aurora spotted for the first time on Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover

NASA’s Perseverance rover has spotted an aurora on Mars that would have been visible to humans. This first sighting of its kind suggests that future astronauts visiting the Red Planet could be in for a light show.

Astronomers have observed aurorae, the light produced when particles or radiation hits a planet’s atmosphere, on Mars since 2005, but all of these displays have only been detected in the form of ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the naked human eye. These mostly come from oxygen in the atmosphere being energised by charged…