In a recent observation, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover looked outside of the Martian terrain to spot a huge Sunspot that cannot be seen from Earth. While conducting the observation, Perseverance captured some photos of the sunspot using its Mastcam-Z camera system specially designed to measure the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. SpaceWeather.com reported that the rover observed the big sunspot for a while before capturing it passing across the solar disk late last week and over the weekend.
“Because Mars is orbiting over the far side of the sun, Perseverance can see approaching sunspots more than a week before we do,” SpaceWeather.com wrote in a post describing the sunspot photos. “Consider this your one-week warning: A big sunspot is coming.”
What Scientists Think About this Recent Capture of Huge Sunspot moving towards Earth
Scientists have discovered that sunspots consist of dark and cool regions where the Sun’s magnetic field is extremely strong. In addition, Astronomers revealed that these patches most serve as launch pads for solar flares which are outbursts of high-energy radiation and coronal mass ejections, (CMEs). When Solar flares and CMEs hits our planet, they tend to affect our satellite navigation and possibly disrupt power grids and other technologies. Hence, monitoring the movements of sunspots is essential to avoid disrupting our technologies both in space and on Earth.
NASA designed the Perseverance rover to conduct Sungazing from the surface of the red planet. The rover’s primary objective is focused on finding evidence of life on Mars and gathering lots of samples for a return mission to Earth. In addition, NASA is collaborating with the European Space Agency to plan a mission that will return the collected Martian samples back to Earth. Perseverance rover is currently studying the floor of Mars’ Jezero Crater which scientists believed must have hosted a massive late and river delta billions of years ago.
The rover landed on the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) crater in February 2021 with other fascinating technologies including the tiny Ingenuity helicopter and MOXIE. The Ingenuity has conducted about 55 flights on the red planet, surpassing its expectations. NASA is also using the MOXIE technology to see how to generate oxygen during the future crewed mission to Mars. The recent capture of the huge Sunspot by the Perseverance rover has shown that the Mars vehicle has the ability to observe beyond Mars’ atmosphere into deep space.
Conclusion
NASA recently captured a huge Sunspot heading toward Earth. Hence, this discovery will help scientists to find out a more secure way to protect our technologies from the destructive impact of solar activity. What do you think about this fascinating observation?
