This time, NASA’s Maven spacecraft observed Mars in the ultraviolet range, so the location of the ozone layer around the planet was also revealed.

Maven (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) has been studying the Red Planet for years and still manages to show something new. Recently, for example, what Mars looks like in the ultraviolet spectrum.

The spacecraft’s imaging ultraviolet (IUVS) spectrum has wavelengths between 110 and 340 nanometers, which is lower than the blue spectrum of visible light. This is an area that is not visible to the human eye, but the posted images have been converted into colors that are visible to us.

The result is very exciting. It shows, for example, that Mars has the same ozone as Earth, only much smaller. This is particularly visible over the polar regions in purple. The clouds and nebulae around the planet are blue or white, while the Earth is greenish or brown.

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In the pictures, contrast is emphasized. Although it is not entirely correct from a scientific point of view, for the average person the result is much more exciting.

The images were taken at two different points in the Martian year. The one on the left, in July 2022, shows the planet’s south pole and one of its deep basins, the Argir Basin. The image on the right was taken in January 2023 and shows the celestial body’s north pole.

The spacecraft has been searching the planet’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere for the past decade. This is the region where the thin atmosphere interacts with the sun and the solar wind. The goal is to understand how the Martian atmosphere exits into space. This may also be important because Mars’ atmosphere may have been much denser in the past and provided the planet with a friendlier climate than it does today. This would explain how there could have been liquid water on its surface billions of years ago.

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