Homeschooling's popularity has increased over the decades. The NCES said that by their last count, in 2019, 1.5 million children, or almost 3%, were home­schooled, and that number is probably an undercount. Homeschooling has particularly been on the rise since the Covid-19 pandemic, and parents' mounting concerns include school shootings and bullying. In a Washington Post-Schar School poll from earlier this year, many parents also claimed they "feared the intrusion of politics into public education," said the Post.

A lack of regulation
While many parents who choose homeschooling believe they are acting in their kid's best interest, the lack of oversight is an issue — and not an accidental one. "For years, right-wing homeschool lobbying organizations in the U.S. have successfully fought attempts to introduce regulations over the process," said The Guardian. 

Some states technically require parents to adhere to a public school curriculum but do nothing to enforce it. And while some states require homeschooled kids to be tested, many of them "allow the testing to take place at home, where the parents can do the testing, and just turn in the results." Studies of home­schooled populations show that children's academic achievement depends heavily on their parents' education background. But in 40 states "parents do not need to have even a high school-level education to educate their children at home," said Scientific American. 

A cover for abuse 
An equally insidious problem is that homeschooling can all too easily conceal abuse. While it is difficult to say how frequently homeschooling may obscure abuse, there is some troubling data. For example, "following the abuse and 2017 death of an autistic teenager whose mother had removed him from school, Connecticut's Office of the Child Advocate found that 36% of children withdrawn from six nearby districts to be home­schooled lived in homes that had been subject to at least one report of suspected abuse or neglect," said Scientific American. Many child abuse experts "believe that the rates of abuse are much higher now as a result of children being kept at home," said child welfare expert Elizabeth Bartholet.

Solar activity is at its peak this year, which provides a unique opportunity for scientists to observe the effect of increased solar radiation on Mars. Specifically, the sun is in solar maximum when the sun is "especially prone to throwing fiery tantrums in a variety of forms, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections," NASA said. "These events launch radiation deep into space. When a series of these solar events erupt, it's called a solar storm." Solar maximum only occurs approximately every 11 years. 

How is NASA studying solar activity?
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter and Curiosity rover are being used to study the solar particles and radiation of this activity as it streams toward Mars. MAVEN "observes radiation, solar particles and more from high above Mars," while Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detectors (RAD) help "scientists understand how radiation breaks down carbon-based molecules on the surface, a process that could affect whether signs of ancient microbial life are preserved there," said a NASA statement.

How would solar activity affect Mars exploration?
Earth's magnetic field mostly protects the planet from the effects of solar radiation; Mars does not have the same luxury. Radiation can harm astronauts' health and cause radiation sickness, as well as disturb radio and electronic communications. That type of communication disruption could be a barrier to exploration. 

While the Red Planet has limited water in the form of ice on its surface, water vapor exists in its atmosphere. The planet is "at a point in its orbit when it's closest to the sun, which heats up the atmosphere." That proximity can "cause billowing dust storms to blanket the surface." This year's solar maximum coincides with the planet's dust storm peak, allowing scientists to test "whether global dust storms help to eject this water vapor, lofting it high above the planet, where the atmosphere gets stripped away during solar storms," the NASA statement said. Some experts posit that this process can explain how Mars transformed from having lakes and rivers to very little water today.