NASA records X and gamma rays from a solar storm on Mars

MADRID (EUROPA PRESS) -NASA missions have managed to record the arrival of x and gamma rays from a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which even caused Martian auroras.

The largest event occurred on May 20 with a solar flare later estimated to be an X12 (X-class solar flares are the strongest of several types) based on data from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, a joint mission between ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA.

The eruption sent X-rays and gamma rays toward the Red Planet, while a subsequent coronal mass ejection launched charged particles. The flare’s

Analysts at the Moon-Mars Space Weather Analysis Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center closely monitored the development of space weather, which warned of the possibility of charged particles arriving after the mass ejection. coronal.

LIKE 30 CHEST X-RAYS

If the astronauts had been standing next to NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars at that time, they would have received a radiation dose of 8,100 micrograys, equivalent to 30 chest X-rays. While not fatal, it was the largest surge measured by Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) since the rover landed 12 years ago.

The RAD data will help scientists plan for the highest level of radiation exposure that could be encountered by astronauts, who could use the Martian landscape for protection.

“Cliffs or lava tubes would provide additional protection for an astronaut from such an event. In Mars orbit or deep space, the dose rate would be significantly higher,” the principal investigator of RAD, Don Hassler, of the Solar System Science and Exploration Division of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this active region of the Sun continues to erupt, which would mean there will be even more solar storms on both Earth and Mars in the coming weeks.”

During the May 20 event, so much energy from the storm hit the surface that the black-and-white images from Curiosity’s navigation cameras danced with “snow”: white streaks and specks caused by charged particles hitting the cameras.

Similarly, the star chamber that NASA’s Mars Odyssey 2001 orbiter uses for guidance was flooded with solar particle energy, momentarily shutting down. (Odyssey has other ways to orient itself and recovered the camera within an hour.) Even with the brief lapse in its star chamber, the orbiter collected vital data on X-rays, gamma rays and charged particles using its High Energy Neutron Detector.

This was not Odyssey’s first encounter with a solar flare: in 2003, solar particles from a solar flare eventually estimated to be an X45 burned out Odyssey’s radiation detector, which was designed to measure such events.

High above Curiosity, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) orbiter captured another effect of recent solar activity: bright auroras over the planet. The way these auroras occur is different from those seen on Earth.

Our home planet is protected from charged particles by a robust magnetic field, which normally limits auroras to regions near the poles. Mars lost its internally generated magnetic field in the ancient past, so there is no protection against energetic particle bombardment. When charged particles hit the Martian atmosphere, auroras are produced that envelop the entire planet.

During solar events, the Sun releases a wide range of energetic particles. Only the most energetic ones can reach the surface to be measured by RAD. Slightly less energetic particles, those that cause auroras, are detected by MAVEN’s Solar Energetic Particle instrument.

Scientists can use data from that instrument to reconstruct a timeline of every minute as the solar particles screamed past, meticulously analyzing how the event evolved.

“This was the largest solar energetic particle event MAVEN has ever seen,” said MAVEN space weather director Christina Lee of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. “There have been several solar events in recent weeks, so we were seeing wave after wave of particles hitting Mars.”