[meteorite-list] NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Tracks Sunspots

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4657

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Tracks Sunspots
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 10, 2015

[Image]
The sequence of seven images in this animation shows sunspots as viewed 
by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from June 27 to July 8, 2015. Image credit: 
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Texas A&M University

Fast Facts:

* Some sunspots are large enough to be visible in images from Curiosity's 
Mast Camera

* Information about sunspots on the side of the sun facing away from Earth 
is helpful for space weather forecasting

* Curiosity is investigating rocks near 'Marias Pass' and preparing for 
a drill test

While busily investigating bedrock types on Mars' Mount Sharp and preparing 
for a drill test, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has also been looking up 
frequently to monitor sunspots on the face of the sun that is turned away 
from Earth.

Large sunspots are evident in views from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam). 
Scientists temporarily have no other resource providing views of the sun 
from the opposite side of the solar system from Earth. The sun completes 
a rotation about once a month -- faster near its equator than near its 
poles. Information about sunspots that develop before they rotate into 
view of Earth and Earth-orbiting spacecraft is helpful in predicting space-weather 
effects of solar emissions related to sunspots.

A series of images from Curiosity showing sunspots rotating eastward in 
late June and early July is online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19801

One sunspot or cluster that rotated out of Curiosity's view over the July 
4 weekend showed up by July 7 as a source area of a solar eruption observed 
by NASA's Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, as seen at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19680

Another sunspot being tracked by Curiosity is on pace to face Earthward 
next week.

NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft, which monitors the sun, is currently almost 
exactly behind the sun from Earth's perspective, but for precisely that 
reason it is temporarily out of communication. The sun disrupts radio 
transmissions that pass too close to it. Communication with Curiosity 
was also suspended last month when Mars passed nearly behind the sun, 
but the rover resumed full communication and operations in late June. 
Daily information from STEREO-A is expected to begin again this month.

"Tracking the sunspot activity on the far side of the sun is useful for 
space-weather forecasting," said Yihua Zheng, project leader for NASA 
Space Weather Services at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, 
Maryland. "It helps us monitor how the sunspots evolve and grow before 
they become visible from this side."

Space weather forecasting aids in anticipating and taking precautions 
against possible effects of solar storms on spacecraft orbiting Earth 
and elsewhere in the solar system. Intense space weather can degrade telephone 
communications, broadcasting and other electronic technology on Earth.

The main purpose for most imaging of the sun by Curiosity and other Mars 
rovers has been to monitor how its apparent brightness is affected by 
dust in Mars' atmosphere above the rovers. Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, 
College Station, is a Mastcam team member who studies the Martian atmosphere. 
Three months ago, he coordinated sunset imaging by Curiosity for a Martian 
evening when Mercury was passing directly in front of the sun from Mars' 
viewpoint.

"We saw sunspots in the images during the Mercury transit, and I was trying 
to distinguish Mercury from a sunspot," Lemmon said. "I checked with heliophysicists 
who study sunspots and learned that STEREO-A was out of communications, 
so there was no current information about sunspots on that side of the 
sun. That's how we learned it would be useful for Curiosity to monitor 
sunspots."

In addition to its sunspot viewing, Curiosity is examining rocks near 
"Marias Pass." A test is planned this month for the percussion mechanism 
of the rover's sample-collecting drill, which exhibited a transient short 
circuit during transfer of sample material collected four months ago. 
The test is designed to provide diagnostic information for use in planning 
the rover's next drilling operation, possibly in the Marias Pass area.

Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached 
the base of Mount Sharp last year after fruitfully investigating outcrops 
closer to its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main 
mission objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount 
Sharp.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, 
built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate 
in Washington. For more information about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity

http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity


Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

Karen Fox
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-6284
karen.c.fox at nasa.gov 

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

2015-236