An event like that of May 20th would have inundated any astronauts on the red planet with a significant amount of radiation, equal to thirty chest x-rays.
If here on Earth the main event of the current solar cycle was the geomagnetic storm of May 11th, with spectacular Northern Lights visible even at our latitudes, the most intense activity on Mars occurred nine days later, on May 20, when an X12-class solar flare hit the planet with charged particles, whose passage left traces in the camera detectors aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover, as can be seen from the snow effect in these images.
Here is a sequence of ultraviolet auroras captured from above, between May 14 and 20, by the NASA Maven satellite, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014. Among its tasks is monitoring the Martian space weather. 2024 is proving to be an extraordinary year from this point of view. In fact, solar flares occur with greater frequency and intensity during the peak of the solar cycle, and in this period we are reaching the highest levels of the current cycle.
Monitoring the effects of solar radiation on Mars – such as those caused by flares, high-energy particles and magnetic fields – are Maven from above and, on the surface of the planet, the Curiosity rover, equipped with a radiation detector called RAD, capable of intercepting high-energy particles passing throughrarefied atmosphere of Mars and reach the ground. By working together, Maven and Curiosity allow us to obtain crucial information on the effects of space weather in view of future missions to the Red Planet, both robotic and with humans, for which it will be necessary to prepare prediction and protection measures, such as sheltering inside tunnels, given that an event like the one on May 20th would flood astronauts on Mars with a significant amount of radiation, equal to thirty chest x-rays.
