Mars may not have a strong global magnetic field like Earth, but scientists have discovered that it still creates glowing auroras using a surprisingly familiar process.
A new study published in Nature Communications shows that Mars has a miniature version of the same magnetic engine that powers Earth’s famous northern and southern lights.
The discovery comes from data collected by NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft before the mission came to an end.
MAVEN lost contact with Earth in December 2025, and NASA officially declared the spacecraft unrecoverable in June 2026.
Even though the mission has ended, the valuable information it gathered is still helping scientists better understand the Red Planet.
On Earth, auroras happen when charged particles from the Sun interact with our planet’s magnetic field. Earth is surrounded by a large magnetic bubble, called the magnetosphere, which protects it from much of the solar wind.
When the Sun’s magnetic field connects with Earth’s magnetic field, energy is released through a process known as magnetic reconnection. This starts a chain reaction called the Dungey cycle, which sends fast-moving electrons into Earth’s upper atmosphere.
As those particles collide with gases in the atmosphere, they create the colorful lights seen near the North and South Poles.
Scientists already knew that magnetic reconnection also happens on Mars. However, they did not expect it to work in a way that closely resembles the Dungey cycle seen on Earth.
Unlike Earth, Mars no longer has a global magnetic field. Billions of years ago, the planet likely had one, but it disappeared over time as the solar wind stripped away much of Mars’ atmosphere. What remains today are scattered patches of strongly magnetized crust. These ancient rocks became magnetized around 4 billion years ago when molten lava cooled while Mars still had its original magnetic field.
These crustal magnetic regions act like tiny magnetic bubbles. Researchers found that they can briefly connect with the Sun’s magnetic field, creating small versions of the Dungey cycle. This process accelerates electrons and sends them into the Martian atmosphere, producing localized auroras directly above these magnetic regions.
To uncover how this happens, scientists combined measurements from several instruments aboard the MAVEN spacecraft. These instruments recorded Mars’ magnetic field, measured the movement of charged particles, and tracked the flow of plasma through the planet’s upper atmosphere. By bringing all of this information together, the team was finally able to explain how these unusual Martian auroras form.
The findings show that the Dungey cycle is not limited to planets with large magnetic fields like Earth. Instead, the same basic physics can work on a much smaller scale wherever the right magnetic conditions exist.
Researchers say the discovery also helps explain why Mars and Earth, despite forming under similar conditions, evolved so differently over billions of years. Understanding how the solar wind interacts with Mars today will also be important as space agencies prepare future robotic missions and eventually send astronauts to explore the planet.
The study gives scientists a new way to look at Mars while showing that even a world with only scattered magnetic fields can still produce one of nature’s most spectacular space phenomena.
Source: NASA.
