Not just an Earthly phenomenon

We Earthlings aren't the only ones seeing northern lights. Mars has them too, but globally!

Global auroras were spotted on Mars. This means that the "northern lights" aren't just seen in the north on the Red Planet but at any other latitude, even as far south (or north, depending on which pole you're looking at) as the Martian equator!

Mars does not have protection from solar storms like Earth does. Earth has a magnetic field to deflect the incoming coronal mass ejections that cause the geomagnetic storms that also cause the northern lights, but Mars lacks this protective layer.

Mars is not new to auroras, but the Red Planet is experiencing its highest geomagnetic storm activity in the last 10 years, according to Nick Schneider of the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). "In February alone, there were three episodes of global auroras--an 'aurora hat trick' we've never seen before."

The auroras don't just show with only head-on collisions between the coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and the planet. They can also light up the Martian skies when being side-swiped by solar energetic particles, which are moved by shock waves caused by CMEs.