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Title: 'Cloud' over Mars leaves scientists baffled
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URL Source: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cloud-mars-scientists-baffled.html
Published: Feb 16, 2015
Author: Phys.org
Post Date: 2015-02-16 21:03:54 by A K A Stone
Keywords: None
Views: 2347
Comments: 10
Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-cloud-mars-scientists- baffled.html#jCp 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 País 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. Observations of a mysterious plume-like feature (marked with yellow arrow) at the limb of the Red Planet on 20 March 2012. The observation was made by astronomer W. Jaeschke. The image is shown with the north pole towards the bottom and the …more Scientists are now working on determining the nature and cause of the plumes by using the Hubble data in combination with the images taken by amateurs. "One idea we've discussed is that the features are caused by a reflective cloud of water-ice, carbon dioxide-ice or dust particles, but this would require exceptional deviations from standard atmospheric circulation models to explain cloud formations at such high altitudes," says Agustin. A curious plume-like feature was observed on Mars on 17 May 1997 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is similar to the features detected by amateur astronomers in 2012, although appeared in a different location. Credit: JPL/NASA/STScI "Another idea is that they are related to an auroral emission, and indeed auroras have been previously observed at these locations, linked to a known region on the surface where there is a large anomaly in the crustal magnetic field," adds Antonio Garcia Munoz, a research fellow at ESA's ESTEC and co- author of the study. The jury is still out on the nature and genesis of these curious high- altitude martian plumes. Further insights should be possible following the arrival of ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter at the Red Planet, scheduled for launch in 2016.
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#4. To: A K A Stone, All (#0)
Global warming on Mars due to man. NASA pulls another one out of its ass. "NASA: Martian Polar Ice Caps Melting Result Of Global Warming October 18th, 2014 | by Bob Flanagan NASA: Martian Polar Ice Caps Melting Result Of Global Warming Science 560 NASA officials are warning that the dramatic rate at which the Martian polar ice caps are melting is directly linked to human caused Global Warming on Earth and could have dire consequences for the survival of the human species in the near future. Recent analysis of spectroscopic imagery taken from space shows massive melting of the Martian polar ice caps at a rate that alarmed the scientists. The increased Greenhouse effect noticed by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) specialists in the past decade is at the cause of this dramatic increase in the warming of the Martian polar ice caps, claims the NASA study. Earth's increased Greenhouse Effect deflects Earth’s Greenhouse Effect deflects thermal radiation from the sun which then is re-radiated in all directions and towards planets such as Venus and Mars “Why are the Martian polar ice caps suddenly melting so fast?” asks astrophysician Dan Cuttingham, from University of Oxford. “If this cannot be entirely explained by the sun, then this phenomenon must be the direct result of human caused Global Warming” he concedes. If Global Warming skeptics claim the problem stems from the sun itself, the body of peer-reviewed scientific literature and data clearly show that the sun has made little if any contribution to the observed global warming over the past 50+ years.
#6. To: SOSO (#4)
(Edited)
You have to be kidding. Ah a humor site.
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