Heliobas Disciple
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A SUNSPOT BIG ENOUGH TO SEE FROM MARS:
NASA's Mars Perseverence rover looks at the sun once a day to check the air for dust. A dim sun = lots of dust. Over the weekend, the rover found a large sunspot. This animation shows the behemoth crossing the solar disk Aug. 17th through 20th:
Perseverance's images of the sun come from its MASTCAM (stereo mast camera), which puts about 90 pixels across the solar disk. It takes a large sunspot to show up in these low-resolution images. Because Mars is orbiting over the farside of the sun, Perseverance can see approaching sunspots more than a week before we do. Consider this your 1-week warning: A big sunspot is coming.
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