NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover Powered Down Due to Solar Blast

By Gilbert Falso :: 10:54 PM

The Mars rover Curiosity, recently the victim of some onboard computer glitches, has been placed into a standby mode as a solar storm heads towards the red planet.

NASA has shut down Curiosity as a precaution against intense solar radiation traveling through space. Scientists noticed a solar flare erupting from the sun that sent a stream of radiation toward Mars. The flare also touched off a cloud of superheated gases that headed toward the planet at speeds approaching 2 million miles per hour.

After the danger of the solar flare has passed, scientists will wake the rover up, and continue rebooting the onboard computers to recover from the earlier bugs the rover has encountered.