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Mars Space

Perseverance Mars Rover Spies Big Sunspot Rotating Toward Earth (space.com) 15

Posted by EditorDavid from the star-gazing dept.
Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a new perspective on sunspots (those dark, cool areas where the sun's magnetic field is particularly strong, and which often launch solar flares).

"NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has given us a sneak peek of an intriguing patch of the sun that's not yet visible from Earth," reports Space.com: Perseverance photographs the sun daily with its Mastcam-Z camera system to gauge the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere. Such an effort captured a big sunspot moving across the solar disk late last week and over the weekend, as SpaceWeather.com reported. "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 highlighting the sunspot photos. "Consider this your one-week warning: A big sunspot is coming...."

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections that hit Earth can affect satellite navigation and disrupt power grids, among other things, so tracking the movement of sunspots is more than just of academic interest.
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Perseverance Mars Rover Spies Big Sunspot Rotating Toward Earth More

Perseverance Mars Rover Spies Big Sunspot Rotating Toward Earth

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  • DANGER ! Will Robinson !

  • No need to worry (Score:3)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday August 26, 2023 @02:44PM (#63799506)

    I'm sure it's just a sunspot. There's absolutely no chance it's a Vogon Destructor Fleet vessel.

  • Don't we have dedicated solar probes for this? Like wtf are Parker Solar probe and Solar Orbiter doing all day?

    • Don't we have dedicated solar probes for this? Like wtf are Parker Solar probe and Solar Orbiter doing all day?

      Getting an incredible suntan?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Jhon ( 241832 )

      "Like wtf are Parker Solar probe and Solar Orbiter doing all day?"

      Parker just used Venus as a slingshot to get in a position to do more orbits around the sun So might not have been in a position to see much of anything.

      Solar Orbiter is currently getting ready for another zoom around the sun inside Mercury's orbit about 1-2 months from now. It's in a position where it could see/report sunspots, but I'm not sure what it's current mission tasks are. And "oh", it'll be pretty close to home (earth) around Dece

      • This. ESA website has a "where is Solar Orbiter" page. SO is swooping in from the "north" to the northwest. Mars is west/southwest. Earth and Venus are to the southeast. Since Parker did a flyby of Venus, it, Venus and Earth are all out of place to see what Mars sees. So, SO might be out of position as well, trailing the sunspot and the Sun having a 4.4 million mile circumference.

    • I'll note that Perseverance wasn't specifically looking for this, but rather just noticed it during its daily routine. The other vehicles you mentioned may not be in the proper position to have seen this when Perseverance did. With the advanced notice from Perseverance, perhaps the other vehicles can/may be tasked to take closer observations.

    • A probe is by definition a device that is designed to enter a subject. The Parker probe is therefore not a device for long term use, given the heat of the Sun's plasma surrounding it.

      The Sun is also a rather large object in our Solar system. So if the Solar orbiter wants to report a spot at the other side of the Sun, Its signal won't be strong enough to send it to Earth. However, the cycle Mars is on shows us the backside of the sun and is most of the time at such an Angle with Earth that communication is p

      • A probe is by definition a device that is designed to enter a subject.

        Believe it or not, it is possible for a word to have several different meanings depending on its usage. For example, probe [cambridge.org].

        You will note one of the definitions is to insert an instrument into something to examine it. However, the verb probe is to search into or examine something. Thus, Perseverance, and all the other instruments flying about or which have landed on Mars are probes. They are examining something.

        And now for something com

    • Don't we have dedicated solar probes for this? Like wtf are Parker Solar probe and Solar Orbiter doing all day?

      I am fairly certain that no probe is monitoring the Sun from every angle 24/7. In the case of both, you are aware that the probe missions are currently in flybys of the Sun and not parked in stationary orbit, right?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      > Like wtf are Parker Solar probe and Solar Orbiter doing all day?

      Location is relevant here. Perseverance is on Mars, which is in a different position relative to the sun and thus the rover can see a different portion of the sun.

      The Parker Solar Probe is headed *toward* the sun, so it's closer, but being closer to something doesn't necessarily help you see the other side of it.

  • All Hail Cyclops

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