NASA: Mars probe discovers unusual glow in the Red Planet's night sky

Space agencies all over the world continue to explore the Red Planet in an attempt to further understand what it is made of and the possibility of living there in the future. NASA’s InSight space probe recently discovered something about the night sky on Mars.

Express reports that NASA’s InSight lander made yet another discovery as it explored the Red Planet. Although the probe is mainly focused on the land and what is happening within its land, the InSight lander was able to detect something about the Martian atmosphere, such as the glow in its night sky. A group of researchers from Cornell University, led by Dr. Don Banfield, spearheaded the mission and published their findings in Nature Geoscience. They explained that the glow in the Martian sky is a result of the reactions of the photochemicals that are present in the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

This would be the first confirmed sign of the previously predicted light. This finding occurs around the same time tremors seemed to have transpired on the planet, now dubbed Marsquakes. The InSight probe was able to record 174 seismic events over a period of 235 Martian days. Most of the tremors were at a frequency similar to the tremors that were experienced during the Apollo moon missions. From these 174 events, 24 of the tremors produced lower frequency signatures that suggest tectonic activity within Mars. With this in mind, these occurrences can potentially give more clues to the evolution of the Red Planet.

Meanwhile, NASA has decided to give a name to one particular rock on Mars back in 2018. The agency dubbed a rock on the planet the Rolling Stones rock, after the legendary rock band. This was propelled by the probe’s thrusters when it touched down on Mars to explore the interior of the planet. The photos taken by the probe showed the dents on the rock that rolled down the surface of the planet for three feet or one meter.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood all expressed delight upon the news. They commented that it was a great way to celebrate their upcoming tour in the United States, and thanked NASA for giving them another milestone in their legendary career.