This Is What An Epic Solar Storm Looked Like On Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover gazed out over the Gale Crater on May 20 and saw something spectacular: the effects of an epic solar storm that blasted Mars. “This science bonanza has offered an unprecedented opportunity to study how such events unfold in deep space, as well as how much radiation exposure the first astronauts on Mars could encounter,”

Curiosity sometimes uses its cameras to monitor the crater for dust devils and wind activity. That’s what it was doing when the sun spit out an X12 solar flare in the direction of Mars. X-class flares are the most intense type and an X12 denotes an exceptionally strong flare. “The biggest X-class flares are by far the largest explosions in the solar system and are awesome to watch,”in an explainer. Curiosity captured views of the flare’s impact on Mars.

The sun is having a moment. Activity is up and it’s been coughing up flares and coronal mass ejections. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Space Weather Prediction Centeras “large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s corona” that can eject billions of tons of material. When those blasts reach Earth, we get vivid auroras.Flares travel fast.

Curiosity wasn’t the only explorer to witness the scene. NASA’s MAVEN orbiter caught sight of Martian auroras. Mars doesn’t have the same protections Earth does from the sun’s bursts. Earth auroras are concentrated at the poles. Mars auroras cover the whole planet. MAVEN’s Solar Energetic Particle instrument tracked the event and NASA created an aurora video with data from the orbiter’s ultraviolet instrument.

The purple color in the video represents auroras on the nightside of Mars for a week starting on May 14. Brighter purple indicates more auroras. “This was the largest solar energetic particle event that MAVEN has ever seen,” said Christina Lee, MAVEN Space Weather Lead.as it lingers in a phase of high activity. That means the potential for more light shows on Earth and more data on how the sun interacts with Mars. Curiosity and MAVEN will be ready.

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