An international team of researchers for the first time predicted the occurrence of atmospheric glow, visible to the naked eye on a planet other than Earth.

At the top of the Martian atmosphere may in fact be much more in common with Earth's upper atmosphere than previously thought. In the new work, the researchers have shown that the upper atmosphere of Mars glows blue light, the intensity of luminescence is dependent on solar activity. This result was obtained by numerical simulations with subsequent laboratory experiment called Planeterrella, used for modeling of atmospheric glow.

"The study showed that the most intense color in Martian atmospheric glow - deep blue. Green and red are also present in them, as in terrestrial auroras. Astronauts living on the surface of the Red Planet, raising his head and looked in the Martian sky shortly after solar eruptions can see it with the naked eye is a wonderful atmospheric phenomenon ", - said Kirill Simon Vedlund, a researcher at Aalto University, Finland, and one of the co-authors of the new research operation.

Speaking of the experimental part of the study, Simon Vedlund says that during the experiment Planeterrella laboratory was recreated the martian atmosphere consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, and then in the atmosphere have been produced electrical discharges in the near vacuum pressures that simulate low pressure supports in the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet. These discharges have resulted in the blue glow form which follows the shape of the plasma retention of magnetic fields, explained Simon Vedlund.
Publication of the study appeared in the journal Planetary and Space Science.