Posted on 03/11/2021 4:21:23 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Just after sunset on March 7, a faint band of light still reaches above the western horizon in this serene, rural Illinois, night skyscape. Taken from an old farmstead, the luminous glow is zodiacal light, prominent in the west after sunset during planet Earth's northern hemisphere spring. On that clear evening the band of zodiacal light seems to engulf bright yellowish Mars and the Pleiades star cluster. Their close conjunction is in the starry sky above the old barn's roof. Zodiacal light is sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust particles that lie near the Solar System's ecliptic plane. Of course all the Solar System's planets orbit near the plane of the ecliptic, within the band of zodiacal light. But zodiacal light and Mars may have a deeper connection. A recent analysis of serendipitous detections of interplanetary dust by the Juno spacecraft during its Earth to Jupiter voyage suggest Mars is the likely source of the dust that produces zodiacal light.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Beautiful!...Just another benefit of living in a rural area.
Zodiacal light is common in the Sudan. Shouldn’t it be seen elsewhere in the northern hemisphere?
bttt
Well, Illinois is not in the Sudan.
However, more than 30 years later, he decided to return to his studies and finished his incomplete doctoral dissertation on zodiacal dust. This made him Brian May, Ph.D in Astrophysics.
Not too many famous rock groups can claim a hard science Ph.D among their members.
Sadly, Mister Ed was evicted from here.
It should be visible if you are far enough from the poles to see the orbital plane of the solar system which is almost the same as the plane of the Milky Way. It will have a lot to do with city light pollution.
Martian dust storms.
Beautiful!
Very recent! I'm surprised that no article has been posted here yet. This is some fascinating information, especially in the timing with the Marshelicopter getting ready to kick up some dust.
Serendipitous Juno Detections Shatter Ideas About Origin of Zodiacal Light
Mar 09, 2021
Data from the NASA spacecrafts journey to Jupiter suggests that Mars may be shedding dust into interplanetary space.
Look up to the night sky just before dawn, or after dusk, and you might see a faint column of light extending up from the horizon. That luminous glow is the zodiacal light, or sunlight reflected toward Earth by a cloud of tiny dust particles orbiting the Sun. Astronomers have long thought that the dust is brought into the inner solar system by a few of the asteroid and comet families that venture in from afar.
But now, a team of Juno scientists argues that Mars may be the culprit. They published their finding in a March 9 paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
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The profound influence of the gravity barrier indicates that the dust particles are in a nearly circular orbit around the Sun, Jørgensen said. And the only object we know of in almost circular orbit around 2 AU is Mars, so the natural thought is that Mars is a source of this dust, he said.
And...
The Mars Helicopter Could Charge up the Atmosphere Around Itself as it Flies
March 4, 2021 by Andy Tomaswick
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Ingenuity will operate in a naturally dusty atmosphere and could even possibly create its own miniature dust cloud when it takes to the skies in a few weeks.
With those dust interactions come electrical potentials, which are created when two dust particles run into each other or into the blades of the rotorcraft. The dust contacting the blades will likely cause a phenomena technically known as tribocharging. More commonly, people are familiar with this phenomena from rubbing balloons on their hair and then sticking them to a ceiling.
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The zodiacal light (also called false dawn[1][2][3] when seen before sunrise) is a faint, diffuse, and roughly triangular white glow that is visible in the night sky and appears to extend from the Sun's direction and along the zodiac, straddling the ecliptic.[4] Sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust causes this phenomenon. Zodiacal light is best seen during twilight after sunset in spring and before sunrise in autumn, when the zodiac is at a steep angle to the horizon. However, the glow is so faint that moonlight and/or light pollution outshine it, rendering it invisible.
Thanks for the post and all of the related links. Mars is thought to have lost most of it’s water. I wonder if water vapor could make up some of this material too.
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