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WASHINGTON:A peculiar petal-shaped cluster, spotted onMars by NASAs Curiosityrover last month, has sparkedspeculation that flowersmight be blooming on the redplanet.

The image shows pearl-col-

oured petals sprouting from arocks surface.

On online discussion fo-rums, space fans said it mightbe quartz embedded in therock. One commenter sug-gested that it could be the pis-tils of a blooming flower, New

York Daily Newsreported.But the cluster appears to

be part of the rock, NASAspokesperson Guy Webstertold the newspaper. I wouldguess that the flower wassomeones descriptive termfor its appearance. PTI

Flower-like image seen on Mars

NEW DELHI: Work on the

worlds largest solar tele-scope is likely to commencein the Ladakh region of Jam-mu and Kashmir by the end ofthis year.

The telescope, with anaperture of two metres, is ex-pected to be of great help inunderstanding the process ofcreation and decay of sun-spots, apart from furtheringcutting edge research on oth-er fundamental processestaking place on the Sun.

Giving details of the Rs.300-crore project, the former

Director of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of As-trophysics and chief investi-gator of the project, S. SirajHasan, said on Saturday thatthe telescope could come upeither at Hanle or Merak vil-lage near Pangong Lake inLadakh.

Once ready, it would be oneof the few solar telescope fa-

cilities in the world with a ca-pability to do both day andnight astronomy. It would al-so fill the longitude gap be-tween Japan and Europe.

The innovative design andbackend instruments wouldfurther enable observationswith an unprecedented highspatial resolution that wouldprovide crucial information

on the nature of magneticfields, he added.

Dr. Hasan was speaking to

reporters on the sidelines of apanel discussion organisedhere as part of the on-goingcentenary session of the Indi-an Science Congress.

A better understanding ofthe how and why of the for-mation and decay of sunspotsassumes importance as theypose a threat to the commu-nication system on earth aswell as space satellites.

Increased sunspot activityfrequently accompanies anincrease in the outflow ofmatter from the Sun in the

form of solar wind. Chargedparticles in this wind can in-terfere with the operation of

satellites by introducing whatis called background staticand also interact with atomsin the upper part of earthsatmosphere, wreaking havocwith the communication sys-tems on ground.

Satellites in low earth orbitface greater risk as during pe-riods of heightened solar ac-tivity, the earths upperatmosphere swells up slightlyin response to the extra heat-ing, which in turn increasesthe rate of decay of thesesatellites.

It will help in understanding the process of creation and decay of sunspotsP. Sunderarajan

Work to begin in Ladakh onworlds largest solar telescope

Facility will have the capability to do both dayand night astronomy

Study required to counter threat tocommunication system