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New Movies of Whirlwinds on Mars
FleaPlus writes "The Pasadena Star-News, APOD, and WPBF report on new movies of Martian whirlwinds, captured by Spirit rover inside Gusev Crater. These movies are the result of a new imaging technique developed after the initial spotting of whirlwinds by Spirit last month.
Here is the first and second video. According to a rover team member, 'This is the best look we've ever gotten of the wind effects on the martian surface as they are happening.'"
No idea, I just wanna know how those winds are starting. Doesnt something have to "push" them?
Winds on mars occur for the same reason as wind on earth. Pretty much the sun heats up one area more than another and causes a pressure differential. Just because there is a lot less atmosphere on mars doesn't mean it occurs for a different reason.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
Gosh, what next? The properties of fluids are the same on Earth and Mars.
I know you weren't really trolling, but seriously you need to reexamine your understanding of the scientific process.
The fact that there are dustdevils on mars isn't new - the scientists I worked with on MER had concluded that there were plenty nearby from satalite imagery (they seem to be formed often in craters and leave trails, as seen in some unreleased satalite imagery). We've had prior observations of effects of dust devils, as described in this paper, and even a few other movies (see bottom of page), but this is our first look *UP CLOSE*. (also of note is this satellite image from the Mars Global Surveyer)
The point here is not "we discovered dustdevils on mars, look pretty picture," the point is that the assumption that physics works the same on mars allows us to properly interpret this *much* better imagery of dust devils and come up with a lot of useful information about the atmosphere, wind speeds, grain size, etc.
I think this attitude of "gee whiz this isn't new" is why a lot of good science doesn't get funded these days. Just because something is "obvious" doesn't make it right, and just because an experiment or observation is not novel does not mean we have nothing to learn from it!
I guess I mean: does this really mean anything important to a scientist, or is it just eyecandy for the taxpayers?
Never underestimate the power of eyecandy for the taxpayers. They want to see what their millions of dollars buy and eyecandy appeals to even the least technically minded.
That's one great thing about these space missions. NASA, JPL, and the ESA let us see the interesting images (and the mundane ones - but no one talks about those much). Plus, the images are available to the whole world, not just U.S. taxpayers.
So everyone, seeing these images, may become inspired to learns more about and support the sciences, including schoolchildren, some of whom may continue on to be the next generation of leaders, scientists, and explorers. Seems like a win-win situation to me.
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
I don't want to know, really I don't.
But seriously, yes, at the bottom of Valles Marineris at noon on a summer's day, you could probably stand the weather if you had on a good parka and a breathing mask. Of course, then there's the radiation that would give any exposed skin a serious sunburn in just a few minutes; at least that's the way I understand it.
I suspect you understood that I was just saying that, due to our media exposure to a very familiar looking place, we're slowly getting indoctrinated to the idea of living on Mars. It's kind of neat, really. We look at pictures of Venus and think we'd never want to go near such a hellish place. Mars, on the other hand, looks more inviting than some places on Earth.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011