Overview

• NASA's Perseverance rover documented the first visible-light aurora on Mars on March 18, 2024, following a solar storm three days earlier.
• This is the first observation of an aurora from the surface of any planet other than Earth, expanding our understanding of planetary auroras.
• The faint green glow, caused by oxygen atoms emitting light at 557.7 nm, was confirmed using Perseverance’s SuperCam spectrometer and Mastcam-Z camera.
• Mars’s lack of a global magnetic field results in planet-wide, diffuse auroras rather than the concentrated polar displays seen on Earth.
• The findings, now published in *Science Advances*, pave the way for improved space weather models and future human exploration of Mars, where astronauts might witness auroras firsthand.