--- title: "NASA Lander Detects Strange Glow In Sky of Mars" description: "Six new studies were published today, detailing some of the discoveries made by NASA's InSight Mars lander, including evidence of a strange glow in the sky." date: "2020-02-24" modified: "2020-02-24" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-lander-strange-glow-mars-sky" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "insight lander" - "insight mars lander" - "mars" - "NASA" - "the digest" --- # NASA Lander Detects Strange Glow In Sky of Mars ![Six new studies were published today, detailing some of the discoveries made by NASA's InSight Mars lander, including evidence of a strange glow in the sky.]() *\Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\* ## Night Light The journals *Nature Geoscience* and *Nature Communications* published six fascinating studies today, all detailing discoveries made by NASA's InSight lander, which first touched down on Mars in November 2018. Overshadowing the other research in today's headlines is the InSight team finally confirming once and for all that Mars is in fact [seismically active.]() Another finding, though, is stands out for its sheer weirdness: InSight's weather science team was able to confirm strange glows in the Martian night sky, [*Vice* reports](), thanks to the lander's sensitive night-time imaging capabilities. ## Airglow The mysterious phenomenon, dubbed "airglow" is suspected to be caused by photochemical reactions in the sky. It's long been predicted to take place on the Red Planet, according to *Vice*, but has only been confirmed now. The observations were thanks to the lander's extremely sensitive host of meteorological instruments, as outlined in [this paper](). ## Dust Devils Scientists were left with one major puzzle: they found plenty of evidence for the existence of dust devils, or "vortices," near InSight's landing site. Yet the lander's latest observations show no sign of them. "We almost certainly have imaged a lot of these vortices but for whatever reason they don’t appear to be opaque, or not opaque enough that we can see them," research lead Don Banfield at Cornell University, who leads InSight's weather science team, told *VICE*. "It’s quite the mystery." **READ MORE:** [NASA’s Mars Lander Detected a Weird Glow in the Martian Night Sky]() \[*VICE*\] **More on Mars:** *[Here’s Why NASA Suspects Mars Life Could Be Hiding Underground]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()