Learn about the causes of auroras and why they appear and act so differently on Mars. The aurora, or the "northern lights" as it is also commonly known, is light emitted by gases in the atmosphere caused by particles from space. Aurora on Earth has been studied for centuries. Aurora has even been discovered on other planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. Aurora has also been discovered on Mars, but recent missions have shown that auroras on Mars look and behave much differently than on other planets.

Dr. Matthew Fillingim is a research physicist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley. He also teaches physics and astronomy at Berkeley City College. Matt earned his PhD in Geophysics from the University of Washington, and his MS and BS in Space Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology. His primary research interests lie in all the interesting phenomena that can occur in the uppermost atmospheres of planets.