Solar storm on Mars: NASA Curiosity Rover hit by radiation equivalent to 30 chest X-rays, still manages to record effect

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NASA shares image of ’suspicious’ redbelly turtle from Kennedy Space Center in Florida | See photoSoon after, another solar explosion, coronal mass ejection (a blast of energetic particles from the sun's surface) reached Mars.These energetic particles from the sun's surface hit the Martian surface, and NASA's Curiosity Rover captured the effect.The US space agency in a statement said on May 20, so much energy from the storm struck the Curiosity Rover's surface that its black-and-white images danced with 'snow' — white streaks and specks caused by charged particles hitting the cameras.Also read: On this day: Key events on June 10, from NASA’s Mars mission in 2003 to Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment in 1752Unlike the Earth whose magnetic field traps energetic particles in the high atmosphere, Mars lost its protective magnetic field long ago, thereby impacting the Martian ground.The magnetic field helps shield the surface, and us, from radiations.Ever since the Curiosity Rover landed on Mars on 2012, the May 20 radiation was the highest ever measured."If astronauts had been standing next to NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover at the time, they would have received a radiation dose of 8,100 micro grays — equivalent to 30 chest X-rays," NASA said.Also read: NASA images: These 10 incredible photographs will blow your mindThat's not in itself a "deadly" amount, it explained, but "certainly something humans would not want to be exposed to, nor ever repeatedly exposed to".NASA has been planning to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s under its Artemis program.

Under the program, humans will first return to the moon as soon as 2026.The solar storm has created a new stress for NASA because of this is to hit the unprotected