High-energy particles bombarded the atmosphere of Mars after a solar storm. As a result, on Red
MAVEN —Mars Atmosphere and Volatile missionEvolution is the only object on Mars capable of simultaneously observing solar activity and the reaction of the thin Martian atmosphere.
August 27, active region on the Sunproduced a series of flares, which are intense bursts of radiation. The star's activity was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME). It hit Mars a few days later.
This CME produced one of the brightest spikessolar energetic particle (SEP) ever observed by the MAVEN spacecraft. NASA called the resulting glow a “light show.”
Accurate space weather forecasting hascritical to protecting current missions and future explorers of the Red Planet. The fact is that, unlike the Earth, Mars does not have a global magnetic field that protects against the dangerous radiation brought by solar storms.
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On the cover:An artist's impression of the MAVEN Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) on Mars and the aurora, but has a different origin. Image credit: University of Colorado