NASA's MAVEN mission has made a couple of unexpected finds in Mars' atmosphere: dust clouds and auroras.

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According to Ars Technica , the dust clouds have been present since MAVEN - which is sampling Mars' atmosphere in order to help us understand its evolution - first entered orbit four months ago. It's unclear what is causing the dust to lift to ranges between 150 and 300kms above the planet's surface."If the dust originates from the atmosphere, this suggests we are missing some fundamental process in the Martian atmosphere," says Laila Andersson of the University of Colorado.Meanwhile, the auroras - unofficially known as the "Christmas lights" due to their appearance last December - spanned the entire northern hemisphere of the planet with an ultraviolet glow. The source was reportedly electrons accelerated out from the Sun; because Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, the electrons made it deep into the atmosphere, creating the auroras.NASA scientists recently discovered that Mars may once have had an ocean across its northern hemisphere. NASA's not the only company with Mars on its mind; 100 finalists were recently announced for a one-way trip to Mars , though a former Canadian astronaut doubts the mission's feasibility

Katie Williams is a freelance writer and journalist. She tweets at @desensitisation and hopes that one day, a bird will tweet back.