The solar storms that gave rise to the hugely impressive auroras seen around the world on May 10 also dealt Mars a blow, creating auroras over the Red Planet and showering its surface with harmful radiation.
The primary source of the solar storms was an active region, AR3664which was an intense knot of magnetic flux on the sun, populated by dozens sunspots that unleashed a large number of powerful people torches and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) first on us, and later as it orbited the Sun, towards Mars.
The most powerful eruption unleashed during this period occurred on May 20, 2024, when Soil was on the opposite side of the sun, but Mars was directly in the line of fire. A barrage of gamma rays and X-rays flew toward Mars at the speed of light, followed a few days later by the slower-moving charged particles of a coronal mass ejection.
On the surface, in Mars’ Gale crater, are the Curiosity Mars roverThe Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) usually records an average daily radiation dose of approximately 700 micrograms. During the solar storm, the radiation detected by RAD shot up to 8,100 microgray, which is the equivalent of undergoing about 30 chest X-rays in one sitting.
While far from being immediately fatal, experiencing such exposure repeatedly during a prolonged stay on the planet would drastically increase health risks. On the other hand, it was the largest radiation explosion RAD had observed since Curiosity landed on Mars 12 years ago, so such high doses are not the norm.
Astronauts could potentially take shelter in caves like those possibly connected to the pit craters and lava tubes on the flanks of volcanoes, such as the one that recently made the rounds in A picture distributed by NASA Mars exploration sorber.
Don Hassler of the Southwest Research Institute, RAD’s principal investigator, agrees with this safety measure.
“Cliff walls or lava tubes would provide an astronaut with additional protection against such an event,” he said in a news release rack. However, hiding in a cave isn’t possible for everyone, especially if you’re not actually on this planet. “In orbit around Mars or in deep space, the speed would be significantly higher.”
Indeed it was. The radiation was so high that the track was disabled Mars Odyssey the spacecraft’s main star-finding camera that it uses to orient itself. Although the camera came back online after an hour, it reminded us that spacecraft are vulnerable to solar radiation. In October 2003, Mars Odyssey’s radiation detector was damaged by radiation from one of the largest solar flares in living memory.
Another spacecraft orbiting Mars, MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) did better and was able to capture the Martian aurora from above Mars as charged particles from the CME rained down on the Red Planet.
MAVEN was able to image the Martian aurora from high above the ground, picking up a large number of charged particles with its Solar Energetic Particle instrument. On the ground, black-and-white images taken by Curiosity’s navigation camera (Navcam) crackled with “snow”: white spots and streaks caused by energetic particles hitting the camera sensor.
“This was the largest solar energetic particle event MAVEN has ever seen,” says Christina Lee of the University of California. Lee is the Space Weather Lead for the MAVEN team. “There have been several solar events in recent weeks, so we saw wave after wave of particles hitting Mars.”
Indeed, it seems as if the entirety of the solar system took a hit from the sun in May, when its active regions spewed particles and radiation in all directions. The aurora seen on Earth and Mars may also have been just a taste of what’s to come – with the activity cycle of the sun As the maximum approaches in July 2025, we can expect many more solar storms in the coming months, and the effects will be visible to us on an interplanetary scale.
On Earth, we have two things to protect us from this radiation attack, namely the global magnetic field and our planet’s thick atmosphere, which can deflect and absorb the radiation respectively.
However, Mars does not have a global magnetic field, although it does have localized magnetic zones, which are believed to be remnants of an ancient planetary field. Mars’ atmosphere is also relatively sparse compared to Earth’s. Combined, this means the red planet will take the full brunt of a solar storm.
Earth’s magnetic field is streamlined by the solar wind into a teardrop shape called the magnetotail. When a CME strikes, charged particles become trapped in the magnetotail, which acts as a kind of solar wind sock. The pressure from the CME pinches the magnetotail, separating it from Earth’s magnetic field. As the magnetotail is carried away from us by the solar wind (don’t worry, like a salamander regrows a lost limb, Earth regrows its magnetotail) the charged particles trapped within it are free to follow magnetic field lines all the way to the magnetic tail. poles.
Along the way, the charged particles collide with atmospheric molecules, mainly oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen, causing these molecules to glow the colors of the aurora: green, red and blue respectively. This is why we tend to see aurora closer to the poles and not near the equator.
On Mars, there is no magnetic field to capture charged particles and send them to the poles, so when a CME hits, the charged particles simply seep straight into the atmosphere of the entire planet. Because Mars has some molecular oxygen in its atmosphere, the aurorae are often tinged green.