The same massive sunspot responsible for triggering a historic geomagnetic storm on Earth in mid-May triggered a legendary storm for Mars a few days later.
On May 20, data from Europe’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft showed that the predicted X12 solar flare was the strongest type. on the glare classification scale – AR3664 exploded from a sunspot (renamed AR3697 on its second trip around the sun). Strong Coronal mass removal (CME) followed up, sending a massive cloud of super-hot solar plasma toward Mars at millions of miles per hour.
The effects of this solar event provided a good education for scientists watching what was happening. NASA researchers EXPERT orbiter, 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter and Curiosity Mars rover Each played a key role in collecting data from the event that will help us better understand our neighboring planet and plan future crewed visits to it.
“We really understand All space weather on Mars We have only begun to scratch the surface by analyzing the data, as large eruptions, CMEs, and extreme solar particle bursts occurred between May 11 and 20. Ed Thiemann, a heliophysicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado in Boulder, told Space.com in an email: The explosion on May 14 did indeed occur as expected.
“The flare significantly inflated and heated the Martian atmosphere as expected, and the resulting CME was indeed auroras” added Thiemann.
MAVEN (short for “Martian Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution”) had a front row seat to the spectacular display of aurora borealis on Mars. But the way auroras are created atmosphere of mars It’s very different from what’s happening here on Earth.
The Earth has a magnetic field that protects us from charged particles. This field directs such particles towards the poles; therefore auroras are generally only visible from high latitudes. Mars cannot be protected from these particles because it lost its magnetic field in ancient times. In other words, when particles hit the atmosphere of Mars, the resulting auroras spread throughout the planet.
Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) instrument can capture the most energetic particles that make their way down to the Red Planet’s surface, but it is the less energetic ones that create the striking auroras. This is where MAVEN’s Solar Particle instrument comes in, allowing scientists to measure the energy that creates the aurora and recreate the event.
“This was the largest solar-powered particle event MAVEN has ever seen,” said Christina Lee, MAVEN Space Weather Lead at the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. a recently released NASA version. “There have been a lot of solar events in the past weeks, so we were seeing waves of particles hitting Mars.”
Curiosity’s RAD instrument also played an important role, collecting information to better educate scientists about how solar storms impact the Martian surface.
For example, RAD data showed how much radiation the particle storm produced near Curiosity; this dose was approximately 8,100 micrograms. If a person had been standing next to the rover at the time, they would have absorbed radiation equivalent to 30 chest X-rays! This was the largest increase detected so far in Curiosity’s 12-year lifetime on Mars. To give you an idea of how much solar energy was generated from this event, just look at the black and white camera footage from the navigation camera on Curiosity (image above). There was such a force when the storm hit the Martian surface that when the charged particles hit the camera, white “snow” spots were sprinkled over the picture!
Meanwhile, when Odyssey encountered energetic particles orbiting Mars, the stellar camera (used to steer the orbiter) took a hit and went offline momentarily. Despite the short-term disruption, the orbiter was able to collect detailed information about X-rays and gamma rays, as well as charged particles, thanks to its High Energy Neutron Detector.
And it’s not just technology that can observe this phenomenon from particle explosions; People can do it too.
“The ‘dots’ and ‘lines’ observed on Curiosity’s camera are not far off from what astronauts see when their eyes are bombarded by radiation storm particles. In fact, astronauts on the ISS often describe seeing ‘fireworks’ when they close their eyes,” said a retired Aerospace Corporation executive. during radiation storms,” Tamitha Skov, a research scientist and professor of space weather at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, told Space.com in an email.
“This is because an energetic particle accumulates some energy as it passes through the CCD sensor in a camera or the retina in the eye, and the accumulated energy causes a false signal, causing the camera or eye to mistakenly believe it is seeing something like a speck or a streak of light,” he said. added Skov.
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Scientists say this much radiation wouldn’t be fatal to humans, but it still reminds us that visitors to the Red Planet need to be properly protected. Researchers say the information collected gives us a better understanding of how we can keep our Mars astronauts safe in the event of strong solar storms.
“Cliff edges or lava tubes would provide additional protection for an astronaut against such an event. In Mars orbit or deep space, the dose rate is significantly higher,” said RAD principal investigator Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division. It will be too much.” In Boulder, Colorado, the same NASA statement said.
Scientists are concerned about the safety of people on the Red Planet, as well as agricultural development there. Powerful solar storms like last month can make it even more difficult to plant and grow enough food in the planet’s already harsh environment.
“Since growing plants requires sunlight, energy, and a lot of space, it would be difficult to grow enough food in lava tubes or caves even if colonists provided enough artificial light to sustain their growth,” Skov said. said. “Unlike Earth, Mars’ atmosphere is so thin that energetic particles can penetrate all the way to the ground. This means that radiation storms of one form or another are a constant problem there. They are like a light drizzle that rains down on us incessantly all the time.” on the surface.”
As sunspot region AR3697 now makes its second appearance facing Mars, researchers are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see what else they can learn from this sunspot that refuses to give up.
“The same sunspot group is still active and rotating towards Mars this week and may provide further events that will aid our understanding of the evolution and loss of the Martian atmosphere,” Thiemann said.