launched the MAVEN spacecraft<\/a> to Mars in November 2013 to explore the planet\u2019s upper atmosphere and its interactions with the Sun and solar wind. The goal is to better understand how Mars lost its atmosphere to space roughly 3.5 to 4 billion years ago.<\/p>\nIn December 2023, MAVEN watched as a large solar storm hit the Red Planet. While analyzing the data, scientists saw a strange pattern taking place deep inside the Martian atmosphere. \u201cWhen investigating the data, I all of a sudden noticed some very interesting wiggles,\u201d Christopher Fowler, a research assistant professor at West Virginia University in Morgantown and lead author of the study, said in a statement. \u201cI would never have guessed it would be this effect, since it\u2019s never been seen in a planetary atmosphere before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Zwan-Wolf effect is a phenomenon whereby charged particles are squeezed through magnetic structures called flux tubes when the magnetic field is compressed. On Earth, the effect helps redirect solar wind (a stream of charged particles) around the planet\u2019s magnetosphere. Surprisingly, the MAVEN observations showed plasma inside Mars\u2019 atmosphere behaving like plasma near Earth\u2019s magnetosphere boundary.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one expected that this effect could even occur in the atmosphere,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes this even more exciting. It introduces interesting physics that we haven\u2019t yet explored and a new way the Sun and space weather can change the dynamics in the Martian atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stormy weather <\/p>\n
During the 2023 solar storm, the scientists first noticed peculiar fluctuations in measurements of the magnetic field as the MAVEN spacecraft flew through the Martian atmosphere. They then dug deeper inside the data, looking at observations made by several instruments on board MAVEN, including measurements of the charged particle environment in the ionosphere. The ionosphere is the upper layer of the atmosphere where solar radiation strips electrons from atoms, creating electrically charged plasma.<\/p>\n
After uncovering more interesting features in the data and ruling out several other possibilities, the team behind the study pinpointed the source as the elusive Zwan-Wolf effect. The study suggests that the Zwan-Wolf effect may be occurring constantly in Mars\u2019 ionosphere, albeit at levels undetectable by MAVEN\u2019s instruments. The effect of the solar storm, however, may have amplified the phenomenon and allowed scientists to observe it in the data for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing how space weather interacts with Mars is essential,\u201d Shannon Curry, the principal investigator of MAVEN and research scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The recent findings will not only help scientists better understand how space weather affects planets like Mars, but they also provide new insights into how the Zwan-Wolf effect may take place at similar unmagnetized bodies like Venus or Saturn\u2019s moon, Titan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe MAVEN team continues making new discoveries with our datasets and finding these links between our host star and the Red Planet,\u201d Curry added.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, MAVEN is currently lost in space. NASA lost signal from the spacecraft<\/a> on December 6, 2025, and has not been able to reestablish connection ever since. The space agency has set up an anomaly review board to assess MAVEN\u2019s current state and the likelihood of its recovery. We hope the Martian probe phones home soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We know Mars to be many things: dusty, cold, and missing a global magnetic field. In a recent…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":808231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[24],"tags":[3091,49083,916,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-808230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-mars","tag-maven","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116603113318552538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}