Widespread plasma jets in the Martian magnetosheath revealed by dual-spacecraft observations

Abstract

Plasma jets in planetary magnetosheaths are transient, high dynamic pressure structures capable of strongly perturbing downstream magnetospheres and modulating solar wind energy transfer. Although recently identified at Mars, their formation mechanisms and global occurrence remain poorly constrained. Using dual-spacecraft observations from Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) and Tianwen-1, we show that magnetosheath jets occur throughout the Martian magnetosheath, in striking contrast to Earth where jet occurrence is strongly controlled by interplanetary magnetic field orientation and largely confined to quasi-parallel shock regions. We propose that this widespread distribution is linked to Mars' extended hydrogen corona, which generates pickup ions that drive proton-cyclotron waves upstream of the bow shock. Because this mechanism is generic to any body with an extended corona (or exosphere) embedded in a stellar wind, this finding bears on solar-wind interactions at comets and other small bodies, and on the space environments of unmagnetized terrestrial exoplanets. These results indicate that magnetosheath jet formation can be governed not only by external solar wind forcing but also by intrinsic planetary properties, pointing to a previously unrecognized pathway for solar wind-planet coupling at unmagnetized worlds.