BEIJING, April 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The Mars rovers have recorded another first; recording a full shower of shooting stars by instruments located on Mars.

    United Kingdom astronomers predicted the event by tracking a comet's path near Mars, then comparing their forecast with Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) satellite data of the red planet's ionosphere — the upper reaches of atmosphere teeming with charged particles.

    Just as on Earth, meteor showers on Mars can occur when a planet passes through the dusty trail of a comet.

    "Just as we can predict meteor outbursts at Earth, such as the Leonids [shower that occurs every November], we can also predict when meteor showers are going to occur at Mars and Venus," said Apostolos Christou, an astronomer at the U.K.'s Armagh Observatory who helped predict the martian meteoric event.

    There are no conventional photos of the meteors in the new findings, but studying the brightness and length of meteor streaks in optical and radio data, Christou said, can help determine the age, size and composition of a comet's core.

    Scientists think four times as many comets dust Mars with their tails compared to Earth, as a high proportion of comets hang out near Jupiter — the red planet's next-closest neighbor. So there could be many more meteor showers visible from Mars than from Earth.

    Christou said detecting the distant meteor shower wasn't easy.

    "We believe that shooting stars should appear at Venus and Mars with a similar brightness to those we see at Earth," he said. "However, as we are not in a position to watch them in the Martian sky directly, we have to sift through satellite data to look for evidence of particles burning up in the upper atmosphere."

    (Agencies)