Spacecraft orbiting the Earth, Moon, and Mars have all detected the same giant coronal mass ejection from the Sun – the first time vehicles in all three locations – plus one on the surface of Mars – have all observed the same event of this sort.
The solar outburst, tagged GLE73, took place on October 28, 2021, and sent a huge wave of energetic particles into space. A team of astronomers working in China, Europe, and the US described the eruption as a “ground level enhancement event” (GLE).
GLEs are relatively rare. Only 73 such events have been detected since the 1940s and none have happened since 2021. Particles ejected by GLEs are particularly energetic in comparison to solar storms and can reach vast distances across space.
Our star’s GLE73 was picked up by instruments aboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, the China National Space Agency’s Chang’e-4 Moon lander, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and the German Aerospace Center’s Eu:CROPIS experimental satellite, according to the researchers.
