Solar Storm Hits Mars and Highlights Risks for Future Missions – Tomorrow’s World Today

Using the orbiters circling the planet and rovers driving across its surface, astronomers captured the effects of a massive solar storm on Mars in order to better estimate the radiation levels that the first red planet astronauts may experience in the future.

According to NASA, the giant solar storm that hit Mars this May engulfed the planet with auroras and an influx of charged particles and radiation. After a massive cluster of sunspots faced the Earth, they rotated in the direction of Mars.

Within the past several months, the sun has shown increased activity as it nears the peak of its 11-year cycle which is predicted for later this year, also known as solar maximum. The spike in solar activity has included strong solar flares, X-class flares, and coronal mass injections or large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the suns outer atmosphere.

According to data from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, the most severe storm took place on May 20 when an X12 flare was released from the sun. The flare sent X-rays and gamma rays toward Mars and a coronal mass ejection released on the heels of the flare, sending charged particles in the planets direction.

Scientists from NASAs Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland stated that the X-rays and gamma rays traveled at the speed of light and reached Mars first, followed by charged particles approximately ten minutes later.

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Solar Storm Hits Mars and Highlights Risks for Future Missions - Tomorrow's World Today