News
Martian auroras offer clues to how the red planet lost its water
Aurorae are a dazzling light spectacle often visible at high-latitude locations here on Earth. They’re colorful and mesmerizing, but most of all, they’re mysterious.
A new study has found that this same phenomenon also happens on Mars. In research presented last week at the American Geophysical Union’s annual Fall meeting, scientists revealed that the most common form of Martian aurorae is called the proton aurora.
Just like the auroras we see here on Earth, proton aurorae are formed when the solar wind—a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun—interacts with the atmosphere. That interaction often manifests itself as a mesmerizing swirl of colored lights in the night sky.
On Mars, however, the auroras appear during the daytime and onlookers would need special ultraviolet glasses to see them. That’s because they’re invisible to the naked eye, but can be spotted with special UV instruments.
These auroras aren’t just a future Martian tourist attraction, they have a scientific value. We could better understand how Mars is losing water to space and more about how the planet’s climate is changing.
Proton auroras were first discovered in 2016 by NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft. MAVEN is investigating how the Red Planet lost its atmosphere and water, ultimately transforming its climate from one that may have supported life to one that is inhospitable.
The observed aurora can help researchers track the amount of water lost since the auroras are related to water loss.
“In this new study using MAVEN/IUVS data from multiple Mars years, the team has found that periods of increased atmospheric escape correspond with increases in proton aurora occurrence and intensity,” Andréa Hughes of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida said in a news release.
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Auroras on both planets start with the same source: the solar wind. On Earth, they appear when the solar wind slams into our planet’s magnetic field. High-energy collisions occur as the charged solar particles interact with particles of atmospheric gas. Each type of particle produces a different colored light in the sky.
Martian auroras start in much the same way, charged particles from the solar wind collide with a cloud of hydrogen that surrounds the red planet. When this happens, protons in the solar wind become neutral after stealing electrons from the hydrogen atoms. They then collide with other molecules in the Martian atmosphere, producing an ultraviolet glow.
Since the hydrogen cloud surrounding the planet is created in part by water being lost to space, this could give scientists a way to measure the amount of water lost over time.
When the MAVEN team first observed the proton aurora, they thought they were witnessing an unusual phenomenon. “At first, we believed that these events were rather rare because we weren’t looking at the right times and places,” Mike Chaffin, a research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) said in a statement.
After Chaffin’s team took a closer look, they discovered that the proton auroras occur quite frequently, especially in the summer. This is probably due to seasonal variation in the hydrogen cloud that surrounds Mars. The team noted that during the Martian summer, the cloud lines up just right to produce near-constant auroras.
But that’s not all. The researchers also discovered that as temperatures climb during the summer, rising dust clouds would carry water vapor away from the planet’s surface. That water vapor is then broken down into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. As more hydrogen escapes into space, it enhances the hydrogen cloud enveloping Mars and ultimately leads to more frequent (and brighter) proton auroras.
“Observations of proton auroras at Mars provides a unique perspective of hydrogen and, therefore, water loss from the planet,” physicist Edwin Mierkiewicz of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida said in a statement.
“Through this research, we can gain a deeper understanding of the Sun’s interactions with the upper atmosphere of Mars and with similar bodies in our Solar System, or in another solar system, that lacks a global magnetic field.”
So, if we ever do make it to Mars, those first visitors are going to witness some truly out-of-this-world sights—as long as they packed their ultraviolet goggles.
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SpaceX will report second quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 4, marking the first time the company has opened its books to the public since its record IPO in June. Management will host a live audio only webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET, streamed on X, with no dial in option.
The debut carries more weight than a typical first quarter as a public company. Two trading days after the release, on August 6, the first tranche of SpaceX’s lockup expires, freeing roughly 911.5 million insider and employee shares, worth well over $100 billion at current prices and the largest such release in Wall Street history. A second, larger tranche tied to the stock trading 30 percent above its $135 IPO price never triggered, since shares have spent most of July trading below that price.
Wall Street’s models point to revenue near $6.9 billion for the quarter, up sharply from the $4.69 billion SpaceX reported in the first quarter, with a narrower per share loss than the $1.27 posted three months earlier, according to estimates compiled by Motley Fool. Those numbers will be the first look at how SpaceX’s three segments, Starlink, launch and AI, are performing independently.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
Investors heading into the call have a specific list of questions. How many net new Starlink subscribers did SpaceX add after ending March with 10.3 million, and is average revenue per user holding up as the service expands into lower income markets. How much of the AI segment’s revenue reflects contract signings with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI this year, deals that combined could annualize to nearly $28 billion if fully ramped. Whether capital expenditures, which nearly doubled in the AI segment alone between 2024 and 2025, are still accelerating or starting to plateau. And whether management offers any forward guidance at all, something SpaceX has never done publicly.
The report will also land days after Elon Musk publicly denied a Wall Street Journal report describing internal planning to separate Tesla’s China business ahead of a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger. Whether Musk or SpaceX executives address that speculation on the call, even indirectly, maybe something investors will be listening for on Tuesday.
As Teslarati reported after Musk’s own warning to short sellers last week, the CEO has made clear he expects skeptics to be proven wrong over time. Tuesday will be the first chance for the numbers themselves to make that case.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
SpaceX released new footage of Starship in space captured by the Starlink satellites it deployed.
SpaceX released a new video Friday evening showing Starship from an angle showcased by its own Starlink satellites, watching the rocket drift away in orbit.
The 65 second clip, posted on X, stitches together footage from four cameras mounted on a single Starlink V3 satellite. It opens with a close view of Starship’s 171 foot upper stage, still catching sunlight, then pulls back as the two spacecraft separate.
The footage comes from Starship’s 13th flight test, which launched July 24 from Starbase after a scrubbed attempt and an abort caused by an engine issue the week before. When Flight 13 finally flew, it carried the first batch of functional Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever deployed, twenty of them, with six equipped with cameras meant to scan the ship’s heat shield during reentry.
View of Starship in space from a Starlink V3 satellite on Flight 13.
This composite is made of imagery from four separate cameras on a single satellite. Six of the satellites were equipped with cameras to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to… pic.twitter.com/sNTHHz5vLr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 31, 2026
Flight 13 checked most of its boxes. Starship deployed all 20 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space, and splashed down softly in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Musk’s longer term plan calls for a Starlink V3 constellation of 100,000 satellites, according to a recent FCC filing, with Starship as the only vehicle capable of launching them at the volume that requires. Each Starship flight is designed to carry up to 60 V3 satellites once the vehicle reaches routine service, well beyond what Falcon 9 can carry in a single mission.
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Starship is next expected to fly with an attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, a maneuver SpaceX has so far reserved for the Super Heavy booster.
Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
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Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
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Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
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Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
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- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
SpaceX’s biggest test yet arrives this week and it’s not a rocket launch
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
