The same gigantic sunspot that was responsible for triggering a historic geomagnetic storm on Earth in mid-May whipped up a legendary one for Mars a few days later.
On May 20, data from Europe’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft showed that an estimated X12 solar flare — the strongest type on the flare classification scale — erupted from the sunspot AR3664 (which was renamed AR3697 on its second trip around the sun). A powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) followed, sending a huge cloud of superhot solar plasma toward Mars at millions of miles per hour.
The impacts from this solar event provided quite an education for scientists watching everything unfold. Researchers with NASA’s MAVEN orbiter, 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, and Curiosity Mars rover each played key roles in capturing data from the event that will help us better understand our neighboring planet and plan for future crewed visits to it.
“We really got the full range of space…
