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Huge Dust Storm Breaks Out on Mars (thousands of miles across)
Space.com ^ | 6/27/07 | Dave Mosher

Posted on 06/27/2007 3:55:05 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

A major dust storm has developed on the red planet, blocking sunlight and prompting Mars mission managers to keep a close eye on it, SPACE.com has learned.

It is not known how large the storm might grow, but already it is thousands of miles across. If it balloons, as dust storms have done in the past, it could hamper operations of NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

For now, officials don't think the storm will threaten rover operations, however. In fact, the windy conditions on the planet have blown off large amounts of dust from the rovers' solar arrays, giving them more power. The power boost may lend a helping hand to the Opportunity rover, should officials decide to send it into Victoria Crater.

"We've been watching this storm for about six days now," said Steven Squyres of Cornell University, who is the lead scientist of the Mars Exploration Rover Project. "It's not unheard of for Martian dust storms to cover half the planet, and this one is now a regional storm."

Squyres wasn't certain of the storm's exact size, but said it appears to be thousands of miles in diameter and "ain't no little hurricane." In fact, "it's one of the most sunlight-blocking storms we've seen on Mars," he said.

According to reports from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which Squyres deemed as Mars' weather satellite, the storm has grown in size and is lifting up dust about 560 miles (900 KM) east of Opportunity, which is presently at Meridiani Planum. "The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team is watching this closely, because we worry about dust in the atmosphere obscuring the sunlight," Squyres said.

Experienced amateur astronomers have spotted the storm with large telescopes. Paul Maxson of Phoenix, Arizona, was one of the first to image the storm.

Dust storms on Mars occur regularly, but seldom do they grow beyond regional proportions. A storm in 2001, however, engulfed the entire planet in red dust.

"If the storm continues to get worse, it could cut into our activities," Squyres said. One of those activities, should the team decide it's not too risky, could be the descent of Opportunity into the massive Victoria Crater. A press conference is planned for Thursday to discuss the decision.

"The upshot of all this wind is that the arrays are so clean that the dust is insignificant right now," he said. "But this is Mars, and we can't predict the weather-we can only to react to it."

Diana Blaney, the deputy project manager for the Mars exploration rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said dust levels can significantly impact the rovers' missions. "When big dust storms like this come along, they decrease the energy the rovers can work with," Blaney said.

JPL spokesperson Guy Webster said Mars mission managers will be monitoring the storm's progress and how it may affect the planned descent into the crater. "They've really been paying attention to the storm and been getting regular reports of its progress," Webster said.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: breaksout; duststorm; globalwarming; huge; mars
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To: NormsRevenge

Women and Minorities Hardest Hit!


21 posted on 06/27/2007 4:16:45 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (We all need someone we can bleed on...)
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To: NormsRevenge

Damn Kyoto Treaty


22 posted on 06/27/2007 4:17:51 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Was there any Arkies, or Okies in Model T’s headin west towards the Mars Grapes of Wrath areas?


23 posted on 06/27/2007 4:19:06 PM PDT by SierraWasp (I'm not only in CONtempt of CONgress, I'm in CONtempt of the other 3 branches as well!!!)
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To: NormsRevenge
"Where is FEMA? George Bush hates martians..."


24 posted on 06/27/2007 4:20:41 PM PDT by infidel29 (Amnesia International: Forget about the atrocities of the left, they meant well.)
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To: ml/nj

Cynthia McKinney blames it on all the Lunar Rovers.


25 posted on 06/27/2007 4:21:58 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Duncan Hunter 2008)
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To: NormsRevenge

Ummm...so? Martians used up their carbon points?


26 posted on 06/27/2007 4:23:13 PM PDT by madison10
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To: NormsRevenge
opportunity has a bum wheel but spirit is ok.

Great line.

Opportunity hampered, but spirit is good. :-)

27 posted on 06/27/2007 4:24:21 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: NormsRevenge

Great pic Norm. (Spirit is the one with the bum wheel.)


28 posted on 06/27/2007 4:31:22 PM PDT by cabojoe
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To: NormsRevenge

Maybe the sandworms will become more active and we will get photos, before they eat the rovers.


29 posted on 06/27/2007 4:31:26 PM PDT by razorback-bert (Posted by Time's Man of the Year)
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To: cabojoe

OOPs, dang, Thanks!


30 posted on 06/27/2007 4:33:34 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... For want of a few good men, a once great nation was lost.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Wow, I hadn’t seen that before. Thanks for posting it!


31 posted on 06/27/2007 4:34:27 PM PDT by kanawa (Don't go where you're looking, look where you're going.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Angry Red Planet.


32 posted on 06/27/2007 4:34:48 PM PDT by HitmanLV ("Lord, give me chastity and temperance, but not now." - St. Augustine)
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To: NormsRevenge
Huge Dust Storm Breaks Out on Mars (Women and Minorities at Greatest Risk)
33 posted on 06/27/2007 4:36:40 PM PDT by Barnacle (Barred from posting on "A Day in the Life of President Bush" threads)
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To: NormsRevenge

It’s all those SUVs they’re driving around up there.

If they aren’t careful, they’re gonna get Al Gore to come over and shake them up — I mean, after all, the ice caps on Mars are melting. How did that happen without Al’s permission?


34 posted on 06/27/2007 4:38:10 PM PDT by janereinheimer ((I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.))
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To: ml/nj

Yep, Democrat Global Warming on Mars caused by the Two Mar’s Rovers. No more ridiculous than the propaganda being foisted on Us down here by the Gorericle down here.


35 posted on 06/27/2007 4:50:46 PM PDT by True Republican Patriot (God Bless America and The Republicans)
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To: NormsRevenge

JOURNALIST: No one would have believed, in the last years of the
nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds
of space.

No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope
studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered
the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds
immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and
surely, they drew their plans against us.

At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars
and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling
towards us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth.
As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.

And that’s how it was for the next ten nights. A flare, spurting out from Mars - bright
green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy,
the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no
living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.

“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one,” he said.
“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but still they
come!”

JOURNALIST: Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. It was thought
to be an ordinary falling star, but next day there was a huge crater in the middle of the
Common, and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there: a cylinder, thirty yards across,
glowing hot... and with faint sounds of movement coming from within.

Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing, and Ogilvy feared there was a
man inside, trying to escape. he rushed to the cylinder, but the intense heat stopped him
before he could burn himself on the metal.

“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one,” he said.
“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but they still
come!”
“Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one,” he said.
“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but they still come!”

It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as
though it were just like any other. From the railway station came the sound of
shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. It all
seemed so safe and tranquil.


36 posted on 06/27/2007 5:10:49 PM PDT by southernnorthcarolina (These are my principals. If you don't like them, I have others.)
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To: ml/nj

haha...or some nefarious plan of Dick Cheney’s.


37 posted on 06/27/2007 7:55:03 PM PDT by americanophile
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To: NormsRevenge

Spirit and Opportunity has shown us that the winds on Mars are very, very mild compared to what we had thought. At one time, it was thought that Martian winds might approach tornado strength on occasion.

Now we know there is almost no wind at all on Mars and the dust storms are caused by extremely fine particles of dust and lower gravity. Might block the sun out a little, but nothing else to worry about.


38 posted on 06/28/2007 5:29:52 AM PDT by JustDoItAlways
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To: RightWhale
If it does, would Mars grow cooler?

No, Unlike on Earth dust storms on Mars actually heat the planet.

For instance the global dust storm in 2001 actually raised Mars' temperature by 30 degrees

39 posted on 06/28/2007 10:13:29 AM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: qam1

Global Warming of 30* in only one year on Mars caused by a dust storm. Just proves the Global Warming Nuts on Earth are beyond crazy.


40 posted on 06/28/2007 4:55:30 PM PDT by True Republican Patriot (God Bless America and The Republicans)
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