![An image of Mars](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/08155636/SEI_203195668.jpg?width=1200)
Jets of plasma seem to be ejected from Mars’s upper atmosphere
Shutterstock/Vadim Sadovski
Mars appears to be blasting material out of its atmosphere, much as the sun launches explosive coronal mass ejections, even though the Red Planet has no overall magnetic field.
When the magnetic fields in ionised gas, called plasma, around a star like our sun suddenly change direction or snap in two, there can be a large burst of energy that launches a parcel of plasma into space, known as a coronal mass ejection.
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