Instruments in different parts of the solar system all captured radiation from the same coronal mass ejection for the first time ever.
Massive solar explosion felt on Earth, the moon and Mars simultaneously for the 1st time ever : Read more
It's interesting what a big nuclear fusion reactor a million times larger than your whole planet will do, even from 93 million miles away. The part I have trouble with is the Rover on Mars recording the event "simultaneously" with instruments on Earth and the Moon. Mars is about 18-20 light minutes further out from the Sun than we are. It should've taken 18-20 minutes longer for the Mars Rover to record the event, and another 18-20 minutes for it to report the event back to Earth. That's assuming the mass ejection was moving at the speed of light. It's more likely that the mass ejection was moving at a fairly high percentage of the speed of light, so the time traveling out to Mars would be a little bit longer. (But not the report back, as radio waves from the rover's transmitter do travel at the speed of light)
A coronal mass ejection traveling faster than light by enough for a report by Martian equipment to reach us at the same time as instruments as on Earth and the Moon (a few seconds of delay) would have physicists all over the world jumping up and down.
www.swpc.noaa.gov
For reference, light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth.
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