Posted on 02/16/2015 5:29:57 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet.
On two separate occasions in March and April 2012, amateur astronomers reported definite plume-like features developing on the planet.
The plumes were seen rising to altitudes of over 250 km above the same region of Mars on both occasions. By comparison, similar features seen in the past have not exceeded 100 km.
"At about 250 km, the division between the atmosphere and outer space is very thin, so the reported plumes are extremely unexpected," says Agustin Sanchez-Lavega of the Universidad del PaÃs Vasco in Spain, lead author of the paper reporting the results in the journal Nature.
The features developed in less than 10 hours, covering an area of up to 1000 x 500 km, and remained visible for around 10 days, changing their structure from day to day.
None of the spacecraft orbiting Mars saw the features because of their viewing geometries and illumination conditions at the time.
However, checking archived Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 1995 and 1999 and of databases of amateur images spanning 2001 to 2014 revealed occasional clouds at the limb of Mars, albeit usually only up to 100 km in altitude.
But one set of Hubble images from 17 May 1997 revealed an abnormally high plume, similar to that spotted by the amateur astronomers in 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Don’t tell me the guys who know all about weather can figure out what this is?
Send another billion to Gore, and a few more trillion to the government. They’ll make it all okay.
I’m not saying it’s aliens...
Excellent
Venus, which also lacks a meaningful magnetic field, and is 76 million miles closer to the sun and therefore has a much stronger solar wind, has a very dense, thick, soupy atmosphere.
How can dat be, eh?
That pic really made me LOL
I doubt it is impact related, since it seems to be happening in the same area with some regularity.
I also don’t think this could be an aurora though, because Mars has a very weak magnetosphere, and besides, auroras are upper atmosphere phenomena, while this seems to be directly in contact with the surface.
My best guess is some type of massive venting, possibly from ice near the polar caps sublimating. The most detailed photo does really look like the venting we see on some of Jupiter’s moons, with multiple venting sites located close together.
Mars allegedly has no atmosphere to speak of because it has no magnetic field, the lack of a magnetic field allowed the solar wind from 143 million miles away to sweep its atmosphere away.
Venus, which also lacks a meaningful magnetic field, and is 76 million miles closer to the sun and therefore has a much stronger solar wind, has a very dense, thick, soupy atmosphere.
How can dat be, eh?
Pretty soon, those cylinders will start falling to earth, and then we'll be in deep trouble.
That’s an interesting question. The constituents of their atmospheres are nearly identical too, so it is a good comparison.
In both cases, the lighter gasses like hydrogen are absent, but in Venus’ case, more of the heavier gasses remain. I think the key is that Venus is about 8 times heavier than Mars, so it would have 8 times the gravity, and thus retain more of those heavier gasses.
Half the distance, square the solar wind intensity.
Looks like a big dust storm.
Because..... shut up thats why. Lol
I got that a lot in school...
Yes, but gravity is a much, much stronger force than the solar wind.
I believe H.G. Wells started Wars of the Worlds with astromomers seeing explosions on the surface of Mars.
I hope that there is no tailpipe on the Martian rover...pollution can lead to global warming you know...:)
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