back to article POWERFUL solar flare belched at Mars rover Curiosity

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite has spotted a giant eruption off the surface of the Sun that will hit rover Curiosity on its way to Mars. The coronal mass ejection sent out an M1 class, or medium, solar flare from the north-east of the Sun that will hit NASA's Solar-Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO B) …

COMMENTS

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  1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    Unfurl the solar sails and pick up a tail wind!

    If only it could ;-)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why...

    Is there a baby dragon on the surface of the sun 26 seconds into the video?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why...

      Aww, & I thought this acid was finally kicking in...

      A/C coz the tickbox just smiled at me.

    2. Severen
      Go

      Re: Why...

      That's not a dragon, that's a seahorse, man!

      :-D

  3. John A Blackley

    How do we determine....

    which is the "north-east of the sun"?

    1. Jonathan Richards 1

      Re: How do we determine....

      ...Ask it to pronounce 'Newcastle'

    2. TRT Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: How do we determine....

      Flares are still in fashion in Noo'cassal, man!

  4. ukgnome
    Coat

    Mass Ejection

    Pfnarr......that is all!

  5. Tegne
    Alien

    Reminded me of the old-school Salamander Arcade game.

    Might have to fire up MAME later.

  6. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    No chance any solar flare could destroy all life on the planet.

    That's very reassuring, but "all" is a major qualification in the above statement. Noticeably, it does not preclude *some* or even *most* of life on the planet being destroyed without NASA running any risk of being sued by the surviving bacteria...

  7. Dani Eder

    Radiation Experiment

    There is a radiation experiment on that mission to measure what humans would be exposed to on a Mars mission. This will give it some good data.

  8. Kharkov
    Alien

    What nobody realises is...

    Curiosity was sent by X-COM (look it up) as our first wave of assault on the evil Sectoids, Ethereals & Mutons at Cydonia Base.

    Obviously they've tried to intercept it half-way and it's been forced to whip out its laser cannon (seriously, it's got a big-ass laser) and blast away.

    There IS no solar flare, that's just the cover-up by the X-COM Funding Council so nobody notices the increased radiation out there (from blowing up a Muton battleship or two).

    Next thing out is... The Avenger(s)!

    Sign me up for the squad!

  9. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    Big Brother

    The final frontier

    I hope the guy in charge at mission control sat down in a large padded chair and got a chance to say "shields up".

    <== Mission control is watching.

  10. Esskay
    Mushroom

    For some reason...

    The ejection makes me think of really bad C-movie special effects... I've got this theory that when an event occurs which is mind-bogglingly massive enough in scale, my brain simply pretends it's a really low-budget special effect in order to stop my head from exploding.

    Amazing footage.

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