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The Prophet Muhammad described seeing it, 17th century astronomer Cassini studied it, and now Danish scientists working for NASA say they have unraveled the mystery of the “ false aurora ” and that the dust Martian has infiltrated space.
Also known as the “ zodiac light, ” the false aurora phenomenon is a band of light that appears just after sunset and is brightest for people living in the northern hemisphere in March. and April. In the southern hemisphere, the effect is most noticeable after sunset in late summer and brightest before sunrise.
Scientists had thought it was caused by dust in space from asteroids and comets when it was illuminated and reflected by the Sun. Today, Danish researchers who designed the navigation system for NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter claim that the dust particles actually originated in Mars.
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The team from the Technical University of Denmark had designed and placed four cameras to use to navigate the Juno orbiter for its launch in August 2011. The spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016.
On its journey to the gas giant, the orbiter passed through a dust storm – but only now have researchers had the opportunity to analyze the results. The dust particles hit Juno with force but were too small to initially be picked up by cameras.
Professor John Leif Jorgensen, who co-authored a study in the scientific journal of geophysical research published online Tuesday, told TV2 that there were so many small objects it looked like someone had rocked a tablecloth full of bread crumbs by the window. His team found at least 23,000 pieces while analyzing the recordings.
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The team calculated that due to where the material struck Juno on its journey to Jupiter, it must have been dust escaping from the red planet’s gravitational field.
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