NASA's MAVEN Mission Captures Ultraviolet View of Mars read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1324-nasa-s-maven-mission-captures-ultraviolet-view-of-mars

NASA's MAVEN mission has Captured Ultraviolet View of Mars. MAVEN has obtained hundreds of images in recent months, giving some of the best high-resolution ultraviolet coverage of Mars.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission was launched in November 2013 to explore the Red Planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind.

The images were captured by the Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS)  on MAVEN. The first images of "nightglow" in the Martian atmosphere demonstrate the process of wind circulation at high altitudes, Nasa revealed on Tuesday.

Nightglow is a common planetary phenomenon in which the sky faintly glows even in the complete absence of external light.

 

#MAVEN gives unprecedented ultraviolet view of #Mars: https://t.co/bxjc4WTY8l #DPSEPSC @NASAGoddard @NASA pic.twitter.com/GcqHfPXzbP

— NASA's MAVEN Mission (@MAVEN2Mars) October 17, 2016

“Mars appears to have had a thick atmosphere warm enough to support liquid water which is a key ingredient and medium for life as we currently know it,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

MAVEN data have enabled researchers to determine the rate at which the Martian atmosphere currently is losing gas to space via stripping by the solar wind.

Source: NASA