A cloaked alien invasion force is approaching Earth and coming up on Mars. The first officer looks through a viewfinder and says, “Captain, the fourth planet’s atmosphere is behaving strangely. As though it were trying to block incoming energy.” The captain takes a moment, then his (already big) eyes get wide and he exclaims, “It’s a defense shield! The Earthlings are hiding on the fourth planet and are prepared to attack us! Abort the invasion!” The first officer responds, “Aye aye, Captain!”

While the tale above is clearly fictionalized (aliens probably don’t say “Aye aye”), it briefly describes a unique atmospheric phenomenon called the Zwan-Wolf effect and occurs when the solar wind interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, the latter of which shields the Earth from harmful space radiation. But now, a team of researchers have identified the Zwan-Wolf effect occurring on Mars. But, since Mars lacks a magnetic field, the Zwan-Wolf effect was found occurring within the Red Planet’s atmosphere, with scientists discussing these incredible findings in a recent study published in Nature Communications.

For the study, the researchers used NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft to analyze data obtained in December 2023 involving the solar wind interacting with the Martian ionosphere. A planet’s ionosphere is the region of the upper atmosphere comprised of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons that is created from the solar radiation colliding with the planet’s upper atmosphere and breaking apart gas molecules, with their ions and electrons free to roam.

The Zwan-Wolf effect has been observed and studied to occur within Earth’s magnetic field for several years, as the effect causes the magnetic field to squeeze from the solar wind. However, this effect has never been observed on Mars since it lacks a magnetic field. Now, MAVEN successfully observed the Zwan-Wolf effect within the Martian ionosphere when a powerful solar storm struck the Martian atmosphere in December 2023. While the researchers hypothesized that the Zwan-Wolf effect could occur regularly on Mars, these regular occurrences are undetectable with current instruments, but this powerful solar storm produced a Zwan-Wolf effect strong enough for MAVEN to detect it.

“No one expected that this effect could even occur in the atmosphere,” said Dr. Christopher Fowler, who is an assistant researcher professor at the University of West Virginia and lead author of the study. “That’s what makes this even more exciting. It introduces interesting physics that we haven’t yet explored and a new way the Sun and space weather can change the dynamics in the Martian atmosphere.”

Along with using the Zwan-Wolf effect to learn more about the Martian atmosphere and how it interacts with the Sun and solar wind, this study could provide key insights into planets lacking a magnetic field. The only other planet in the solar system with an atmosphere and without a magnetic field is Venus, which lacks plate tectonics that prevents a magnetic field from forming. This prevents heat from circulating within Venus’ interior, also called convection, which is one of two characteristics required to produce a magnetic field. The other characteristic is a liquid iron core, which Venus possesses.

Launched in November 2013 and arriving at Mars in September 2014, the MAVEN spacecraft’s primary mission objective was to ascertain how Mars lost its atmosphere, whether currently or long ago when the atmosphere was much thicker than it is today. While MAVEN went silent for unknown reasons in December 2025, MAVEN confirmed a longstanding hypothesis that the Martian atmosphere was stripped away by the solar wind, resulting in the Red Planet losing its ability to maintain liquid water on its surface.

What new insights into the atmospheric effect on Mars will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

The top candidates for California governor crisscrossed the state Friday, all venturing to friendly political territory to woo voters and undermine their rivals as the June 2 primary election fast approaches.

The top Republican in the race, former Fox News host Steve Hilton, spent the day railing against transgender athletes before a high school track event in the Central Valley, an event sure to appeal to his base of President Trump supporters.

The front-running Democrats, former Biden administration Cabinet member Xavier Becerra and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, rallied one of their party’s most influential constituencies: union members.

While both stuck with mostly an upbeat message and reiterated promises to lift up Californians struggling to make ends meet, Steyer afterward accused Becerra of being “a corporate Democrat who’s taking money from all these big corporations” who “doesn’t want to change things.”

Steyer’s had good reason to go after Becerra.

A new poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times showed Becerra leading the race with 25% support from likely voters, followed by Hilton at 21% and Steyer within striking distance at 19%. The two candidates who finish in first and second place in the primary will advance to the November general election, leaving the third-place finisher on the sideline.

Though he told reporters Friday morning that “I don’t pay attention to polls,” Steyer was energetic at a Northern California campaign event, where he held a private meeting with leaders of a union representing long-term caregivers. In brief remarks at the offices of SEIU Local 2015, Steyer described the race as a choice between a billionaire champion of working people and the corporate-backed Becerra.

“Does California work for Californians or does California work for corporations? The corporations think it works for them. They want it to continue to work for them and they’re putting up tens of millions of dollars to make sure they continue to make record profits,” he told dozens of home-care workers, teachers, construction workers and nurses at the West Sacramento gathering.

Groups including PG&E, the California Assn. of Realtors and the California Chamber of Commerce have spent more than $34 million opposing Steyer’s candidacy. The former hedge fund manager has pledged to lower energy bills by breaking up large electric utility monopolies.

As a billionaire who has so far poured $216 million of his own money into his gubernatorial campaign, Steyer has faced skepticism from some left-wing and working-class voters. But he is endorsed by progressives, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-San Jose), and unions including the California Nurses Assn. and both major teachers unions.

“I voted for Tom. I was looking for a change,” said Alvenia Scott, a union board member who works as an in-home caregiver to her disabled sister.

“He really has some good ideas,” she said, adding that she had more qualms about Steyer’s lack of government experience than his wealth. “He made his way in life, more power to him.”

Hundreds of miles south in the Inland Empire, Becerra pledged to be on the side of unions if he is elected governor and urged voters to turn in their ballots in what has so far been a remarkably low-turnout election.

“I am with you. When I become governor and I sit behind that desk, you’ll have a union man sitting at that desk,” Becerra told about 500 people at the United Food and Commercial Workers hall in Bloomington.

He asked the crowd if they had cast their ballots and noted that not everyone raised their hand.

“Less than one in five Californians have actually cast their vote so far. We got to get that number way, way up,” he said, arguing that the election is about “sending a message all across the country that California will be counted, that California cannot be neglected, and that California will not take a knee to anyone in Washington, D.C.”

Only 12% of the state’s registered voters have cast ballots as of Thursday evening, according to the election tracking firm Political Data Inc.

Community college counselor Diego Rodriguez, 32, said he decided to vote for Becerra in recent weeks after seeing the former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary’s momentum in the race and researching his record.

“Also just his story. As someone who works in higher education, and seeing how Xavier, being first-generation, has benefited from higher education, and how he advocates for higher education,” the Rialto resident said. “Additionally, today, him being here at a labor union and advocating for the working class and labor, I think, is very important.”

Rodriguez said he first started looking into Becerra after he was among the candidates excluded from a USC debate that was ultimately canceled.

“I think that people became aware of him more because of that,” Rodriguez said. “There was a lot of conversation online regarding that, but I think it allowed the spotlight to be brought onto him and it made people aware of his record.”

At a campaign stop in Clovis in the central part of the state, Hilton marveled that his campaign had spent only about $2 million in campaign advertising but was still polling above Steyer, according to the latest Berkeley IGS survey.

“We’re feeling confident,” said Hilton, standing in a suburban stretch of the city. Still, he warned that voters need to get out to support him and avoid a “complete disaster for California” of two Democrats advancing to the November election.

Hilton, who was endorsed by Trump in April, joined other politicians and leaders in Clovis in opposing trans athletes from competing at the 2026 CIF State Track & Field Championships.

The group met near where the championship events were scheduled to take place this weekend.

Asked why he was focusing on sports and gender in the final days of the race, Hilton said it’s “one of the main issues” that come up at town halls. If elected, he said he would seek to overturn the state’s 13-year-old law that allows students to participate in school activities and use facilities such as bathrooms based on their gender identity.

Hilton argues the law violates the state Constitution and will “suspend” it while he initiates legal proceedings to overturn it.

He also praised Spencer Pratt, a Republican and former reality TV star who is running for Los Angeles mayor, saying his candidacy has brought “excitement and energy” to the state’s primary election.

“For a long time in California, there’s been this sense that it’s all inevitable — there’s nothing you can do, Democrats run this place, just the way it is,” Hilton said. “I think that that’s changing. I think there’s this sense that something’s happening.”