{"id":34837,"date":"2018-10-31T13:31:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T08:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34837"},"modified":"2018-10-31T13:31:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T08:01:45","slug":"large-solar-storm-sparks-global-aurora-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/large-solar-storm-sparks-global-aurora-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Large solar storm sparks global aurora on Mars:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/large-solar-storm-sparks-global-aurora-on-mars\/article19780721.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Large solar storm sparks global aurora on Mars<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>An unexpected event<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An unexpectedly strong solar storm hit Mars in September, sparking a global aurora and doubling radiation levels on the red planet.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Strangely, it occurred in conjunction with a spate of solar activity during what is usually a quiet period in the Sun\u2019s 11-year sunspot and storm-activity cycle.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current solar cycle has been an odd one, with less activity than usual during the peak, and now we have this large event as we\u2019re approaching solar minimum<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The solar event sparked an aurora more than 25 times brighter than any previously seen by the MAVEN orbiter<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>RAD<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The event produced radiation levels on the surface more than double any previously measured by the Curiosity Rover\u2019s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) since that mission\u2019s landing in 2012.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RAD monitored radiation levels inside the encapsulated spacecraft that carried Curiosity from Earth to Mars in 2011 and 2012 and has been steadily monitoring the radiation environment at Mars\u2019 surface for more than five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RAD findings strengthen understanding of radiation\u2019s impact on Mars habitability, a key objective of the Curiosity mission.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA is also using RAD findings for planning the safety of human-crew missions to Mars.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><\/b><b>Radiations<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Highly energetic solar events can significantly increase the radiation that penetrates through the atmosphere to the Mars surface.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The increased radiation also interacts with the atmosphere to produce additional, secondary particles, which need to be understood and shielded against to ensure the safety of future human explorers.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To protect our astronauts on Mars in the future, we need to continue to provide this type of space weather monitoring there.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Solar storm<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solar storms are a variety of eruptions of mass and energy from the solar surface. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flares, prominences, sunspots, coronal mass ejections are the common harbingers of solar activity. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They all involve sudden releases of stored magnetic energy, which accelerates the hot gases near the surface or in the corona of the Sun. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes these particles make it all the way to the Earth and beyond by flowing along the Sun&#8217;s magnetic field into interplanetary space. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the material collides with the Earth&#8217;s magnetic field and trapped radiation belts, it can dump particles into our upper atmosphere to cause the Aurora. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same &#8216;charged&#8217; particles can produce their own magnetic fields which can modify the Earth&#8217;s magnetic field and affect compass readings. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Aurora<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a natural electrical phenomenon characterized by the appearance of streamers of reddish or greenish light in the sky, especially near the northern or southern magnetic pole. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The effect is caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with atoms in the upper atmosphere. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In northern and southern regions, it is respectively called Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights and Aurora Australis or Southern Lights.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Maven<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) is a space probe developed by NASA designed to study the Martian atmosphere while orbiting Mars. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Curiosity <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With its rover named Curiosity, Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA&#8217;s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In other words, its mission is to determine the planet&#8217;s &#8220;habitability.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Large solar storm sparks global aurora on Mars: An unexpected event An unexpectedly strong solar storm hit Mars in September, sparking a global aurora and doubling radiation levels on the red planet. Strangely, it occurred in conjunction with a spate of solar activity during what is usually a quiet period in the Sun\u2019s 11-year sunspot&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/large-solar-storm-sparks-global-aurora-on-mars\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Large solar storm sparks global aurora on Mars:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704801813},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}