Dr. Robert J. Lillis is a planetary space physicist and geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, where he serves as Associate Director of the Planetary Group.

Auroras on Mars provide a dramatic view into how the planet’s atmosphere interacts with the solar wind, offering key insights into its magnetic and atmospheric behavior. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a global magnetic field, resulting in three distinct types of aurora: *diffuse aurora*, seen across much of the nightside during intense solar storms; *electron aurora* (often called discrete aurora), which is confined to regions with strong crustal magnetic fields; and *proton aurora*, caused by incoming solar wind protons interacting with the upper atmosphere. NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft has been instrumental in discovering and studying these auroras, particularly through its ultraviolet and particle instruments. The Emirates Mars Mission has complemented this work by providing wide-field, global observations of auroral activity, helping to track how it evolves over time and space.