Two European Space Agency Mars-orbiting missions, the Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, watched as a powerful solar "superstorm" that ravaged Earth also struck the Red Planet. The storm caused glitching spacecraft and a super-charged upper Martian atmosphere.
The solar storm slammed the Earth on May 11, 2024, proving to be the biggest recorded on our planet for over 20 years. It generated bright auroras, usually restricted to our planet's poles, as far toward the equator as Mexico. And indeed, the storm also impacted Mars, with the Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) belted with 200 days' worth of radiation in the space of just 64 hours.
