By: Maggie Z

On May 20th, just a few days after people on Earth saw a stunning display of northern and southern lights due to a solar flare, Mars was bombarded with another solar eruption that, as seen from a bird’s eye view, enveloped the entire planet in auroras. When the May 14th solar flare hit Earth, the Earth’s magnetic field pushed the charged particles towards the north and south poles. The particles bounced off other gas molecules in the vicinity, created the splendid light shows we call auroras, and left our blue planet unscathed.

The same, however, couldn’t happen on Mars. Mars no longer has a magnetic field. According to NASA, Earth’s magnetic field “protects our planet from cosmic radiation and from the charged particles emitted by our Sun ”and is “generated by the motion of molten iron in the core.” Mars lost its magnetic field long ago when the iron beneath its surface stopped getting tossed around. As a result, says New York Times science reporter Robin George Andrews, the Sun delivered “a radiation dose equivalent to 30 chest X-rays” to Mars’ surface.

From a view on the MAVEN orbiter, a satellite orbiting Mars, the red planet was bombarded with a storm of ultraviolet light, though a light green glow has been seen on the planet’s surface. “There’s nothing to stop these particles from plowing right into the atmosphere,” says Nick Schneider, the lead scientist working on UV Imaging on MAVEN.

However, the inner planets weren’t the only things these powerful radioactive waves hit. Just like how UV rays can cause damage to living tissue here on Earth, they can also degrade spacecraft solar panels. “One solar storm causes about the same amount of (solar panel) degradation that we typically see over a year,” says Dr. Shannon Curry, principal investigator of NASA’s MAVEN orbiter. Our robotic friends on and around Mars are fine for the present, but NASA warns that they might not always come out intact.

This event has done quite a bit to dampen scientists’ moods about future settlements on Mars, but this event has prompted them to work even harder to create and protect a some-day Mars colony.