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In addition to creating stunning auroras, the recent severe storm has provided more details about how much radiation future astronauts may encounter on the Red Planet. NASA rovers
In addition to creating stunning auroras, the recent severe storm has provided more details about how much radiation future astronauts may encounter on the Red Planet.
NASA rovers and orbiters observed significant solar flares and coronal mass ejections in conjunction with the X12 solar flare that hit Mars on May 20. This event exposed potential radiation doses to astronauts and caused visual disturbances to Mars equipment. Data from these observations will help plan radiation protection and future missions, including the upcoming ESCAPADE mission.
Ever since the Sun entered a period of peak activity called a solar maximum earlier this year, Martian scientists have been anticipating epic solar storms. Over the past month, NASA’s rovers and orbiters have given researchers a front-row seat to a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections reaching Mars; in some cases it even caused auroras on Mars.
This goldmine of science offered an unprecedented opportunity to study how such events occur in deep space and what kind of radiation the first astronauts on Mars might have been exposed to.
The largest event occurred on May 20, with a solar flare later assessed as X12 – a variety of It is the strongest of the species. NASA. The flare sent X-rays and gamma rays toward the Red Planet, while the ensuing coronal mass ejection ejected charged particles. X-rays and gamma rays from the explosion traveling at the speed of light reached Mars first, while charged particles remained behind, reaching Mars in just tens of minutes.
The evolution of space weather was closely monitored by analysts from the Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, noting the possibility of an influx of charged particles after a coronal mass ejection.
If the astronauts had stood next to NASA’s Curiosity rover at that time, they would have received a radiation dose of 8,100 micrograms, the equivalent of 30 chest X-rays. Although not fatal, it was the largest explosion measured by Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) since the rover’s landing 12 years ago.
RAD data will help scientists plan for the highest levels of radiation exposure that astronauts might encounter, who could use the Martian landscape for protection.
“Rock slopes or lava tubes would provide additional protection for an astronaut against such an event. In Mars orbit or deep space, the dose rate would be much higher,” said RAD principal investigator from the Solar System Exploration and Exploration Division of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Don Hassler. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this active region on the Sun continues to erupt, meaning more solar storms on both Earth and Mars in the coming weeks.”
During the May 20 event, the storm’s energy hit the surface so much that black-and-white images from Curiosity’s navigation cameras danced with “snow,” white streaks and dots caused by charged particles hitting the cameras.
Similarly, the star camera used for orientation on NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter was also filled with momentarily lost solar particle energy. (Odysseus had other ways to orient himself and recovered the camera within an hour.) The orbiter collected important data on X-rays, gamma rays, and charged particles using high-energy neutrons despite a short gap in the star chamber. Detector.
This wasn’t Odyssey’s first encounter with a solar flare: In 2003, solar particles from solar flares were eventually detected by Odyssey’s X45-fried radiation detector, which was designed to measure such events.
Perched high above Curiosity, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) orbiter captured another effect of recent solar activity: auroras shining over the planet. The way these auroras appear is different from those observed on Earth.
Our home planet is protected from charged particles by a strong magnetic field that normally restricts aurora borealis to regions near the poles. (The solar maximum is responsible for recent auroras observed as far south as Alabama.) Mars has lost its internally generated magnetic field in the ancient past, so there is no defense against a barrage of energetic particles. When charged particles enter the Martian atmosphere, auroras appear that engulf the entire planet.
During solar events, the Sun emits a wide variety of energetic particles. Only the most energetic can reach the surface to measure with RAD. The low-energy particles that cause auroras are detected by the MAVEN Solar Particle instrument.
Scientists can use the device’s data to reconstruct the timeline of each minute as solar particles screamed by and carefully analyze how the event unfolded.
“This was the largest solar energetic particle event ever seen by MAVEN,” said MAVEN Space Weather Chief Christina Lee of the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. “There have been a lot of solar events in recent weeks, so we’ve seen waves of particles hitting Mars.”
Data from NASA spacecraft will not only help future planetary missions to the Red Planet. This adds to the large amounts of information being collected by the agency’s other heliophysics missions, including Voyager, Parker Solar Probe, and the upcoming ESCAPADE (Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission.
Scheduled to launch in late 2024, ESCAPADE’s twin small satellites will orbit Mars and observe space weather from a unique binary perspective in more detail than MAVEN can currently measure individually.
Curiosity was created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. JPL is leading the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
MAVEN’s principal investigator works at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. LASP is also responsible for scientific operations management and public relations and communications. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. JPL in Southern California provides navigation and support for the Deep Space Network. The MAVEN team is preparing to celebrate the spacecraft’s 10th anniversary on Mars in September 2024.
Source: Port Altele
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