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New Dust Storm on Mars Viewable with Telescopes
starexplorer writes "Space.com is reporting that a large dust storm has just began on Mars, just as the Red Planet has gotten in prime viewing location this weekend with a decent sized backyard telescope. An amazing stroke of luck for everyone this weekend! Three PDF Viewing Guides, movies and more available to help get you started."
I've got a Meade 125-ETX, I wonder how visible this will be. The last time Mars was close and I lugged the scope out It was mostly a brown smudge.
Mars will be 43,137,071 miles from Earth at around 11:25 p.m. ET Saturday.
That's 13,803,862,720 rods for the anti-science crowd.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
While this is exciting for amateur astronomers to see a process like this happening on Mars, it's also very forboding and ominous. Mars has a bad habit of becoming engulfed in planet wide dust storms which almost totally hide the surface features of the planet.
s dust.htm
I am sure many amateurs like myself would prefer NO dust storms on Mars while it is so close to the Earth, and so favorably positioned for Northern hemisphere observers. This has been a great Mars apparition so far, I've watched it growing in the eyepiece since August. If the dust stays clear, Mars will be large enough to enjoy until almost February. If it turns into a cloudy red ball, well...
This page shows a dust storm growing from the 2003 apparition of Mars, and a picture of the dreaded featureless red ball.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/09jul_mar
Dust storms are obviously complex events with particles going in all sort of directions...clearly indicate the existance of an intelligent dust storm causer.
An amazing stroke of luck for everyone this weekend!
Not if you live on Mars.
Its just a herd of RIAA lawyers migrating
VISIBLE!!!
I'll never read Slashdot again.
That's weird - we had the same in London today?! Kinda like caramel, all down the Thames.
Mars always was great from the Earth, with the unica difference that this time will be seen 69 million kilometers of the Earth
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
------- In the end there are no begining
I'm far more concerned about the Mars Rovers being able to weather the storm, and come out without their solar panels dust-covered.
Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
Not quite. The atmosphere on Venus is many times denser than that on Earth. Until we knocked a lot of the gas out of the atmosphere, we'd have to live in pressure suits or stay high in the air. Also, the atmosphere is full of sulphuric compounds which would have to be neutralised. Venus already has a lot of water, however, all the surface water has been vapourised -- the planet suffers from a run away greenhouse effect.
Be relentless!
It's all Bush's fault!!
It's not bad enough that he has to screw up one planet's climate, now he's messing with Mars! If only he had signed that Kyoto treaty...
Those martians really are an introverted crowd, throwing up a big dust storm to prevent all of us perverted peeping humans from getting a look at their wives' nighties through their windows!
How is Mars having a dust storm? What is causing it? I thought energy can't be produced?
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The storm can be clearly seen in the equatorial region.
It's not about going to Mars because its a pretty fun place to visit like Disneyland. It's about going to Mars because of a desire to learn about new environments and new science and new technology.
We are like 15th century Europe about to start exploring the Americas, it's a huge wild dangerous place filled with great unknowns and fantastically huge potential. Should we stay home in our safe little castles or step out into the next frontier and learn how to live there and what its pitfalls and rewards are?
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
HA HA, Ass....
"Don't Forget to Salt the Fries"
the longer you stare at it the longer your mind starts reading things into what you're seeing and the next thing you know you're looking at martian canals.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/cixel
Mars is techtonically dead so earthquakes don't happen. Also, a "couple hundred knots" of wind isn't as impressive on Mars as it is on Earth. Winds on earth that qualify as hurricane speeds on earth, would feel more like a light breeze on Mars due to the low air pressure.
Also, if we want create a colony on another celestial body besides the moon, Mars would be the best choice. Venus is way too hot and has major acid rain. Moons are a bad idea because prolonged exposure to low G environments can cause health problems. Mars, even if it has high winds, is the most similar to earth. It would also be easier to colonize with our current level of technology then venus would.
Speaking is NOT communication
(Actually Clay Sherrod, who seems to be the first to have imaged this storm, isn't an amateur but he's active in the ALPO Mars section which consists mainly of amateurs and he images at a small observatory, not some huge government funded observatory with various gigantic telescopes.)
The thing is, the big expensive government funded telescopes, or the Hubble, for example, can take better photos of Mars than amateurs can. But there is the question of coverage . . . the big expensive telescopes just don't have the resources (ie, observing time) to image Mars (or any other particular object or planet) several times a night whenever that object is visible.
But amateurs do have the observing time available and they do the work . . . result is, amateurs do a lot of the meat & potatoes of keeping an eye on things like Mars or Jupiter.
More of Sherrod's photos of the beginning of the Mars dust storm and numerous photos of this Mars apparition.
Since Sherrod is imaging Mars pretty much every possible night, he was on the spot to catch this as it happened . . .
Also, if you haven't been following trends in astro-imaging, you may be amazed at the quality of images people are now getting using relatively modest telescopes (generally 8 to 14 inch scopes, the sort of thing you can buy basically off the shelf for maybe $800 to $5000) coupled with inexpensive webcams.
See numerous amateur astronomer's images of this apparition of Mars here. (warning--LOTS of images on that page).
... are down there suffering in that storm, and all we can do is talk about how cool it is.
George Bush doesn't care about green people. With tentacles. And big bug eyes. Mind control devices. Heat rays, anti-gravity belts, uranium PU-32 space modulators...
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I wonder how this storm my affect the twin rovers on mars ?
Has anyone heard about this issue ?
Atmospheric pressure on mars is ~ 1% of Earth pressure (just googled that). That's a lot of giant dust storm with not much gasses to move it around, eh wot? The dust must be ultra fine and very light for this to happen.
This assumes the dust storm travels over any one of them.
Maybe another power boast? Or would there be any scientific value of observing one huge storm through the cameras of the rovers?
http://saveie6.com/
We are like 15th century Europe about to start exploring the Americas, it's a huge wild dangerous place filled with great unknowns and fantastically huge potential. Should we stay home in our safe little castles or step out into the next frontier and learn how to live there and what its pitfalls and rewards are?
It seems as though you are forgetting how incerdibly hostile that Space is:
That's just the big stuff that we know about. Then there's the stuff we don't know about and so can't plan for, and there the "other things" like:
To follow with your European exploration analogy, I say that we are not yet at the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria stage yet. Rather, we are ancient Greeks who have reed boats that can travel from island to island. We'll get to the point of 15th century Europeans when we develop an adequate power source.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
... But it is overcast here you insensitive clod!
Actually it really is. It was clear last night until about 2 am. Maybe it is the chaos theory on a universal scale:
"If there is anything remotely interesting in space happening this night, would it be overcast where I am?" I say yes.
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
So with that grain of salt, I think we are farther along that you think.
Except for the duration of travel, the Moon is a harsher mistress than Mars. It's colder at night, hotter in the day, less gravity while you're staying there, the long night will be killer on any scenario that tries to use solar power or batteries, and the radiation is worse due to no atmosphere or magnetic shield whatsoever. As to the dust both of our Viking landers lived though dust storms on Mars and survived unscathed.
We already have the technology to cross space and land on another body; that's old hat. The only trick with Mars is getting enough provisions along for the ride; food, fuel, water, air. Those are funding and coordination issues, not new technology and research issues. We could leave for Mars in five years if we had the political will power and funding. We just need a big man-rated launcher again and NASA is finally working on that.
hard vacuum - Apollo dealt with that.
weightlessness - string out a tether, capsule at one end, some equal mass at the other, spin at appropriate speed and presto, one gravity while enroute.
cosmic and solar flare radiation - minimal shielding in flight, their cancer risk goes up about 1% over their lifetime after a two year trip.
cold - Apollo dealt with that.
heat - Apollo dealt with that.
energy (our own) - If you are referring to electricity, take a small nuclear plant, we do it for subs, for space probes, for satellites - its not mystery science.
If you are talking about human energy to last through the mission, well, that's a question. My guess is that it won't be an issue with the right personality type. They will still be able to be in contact with Earth via radio, Internet (bluetooth 3.0 has a realllly long range... :), etc. I mean, how many guys on slashdot go for years with nothing but a computer, the internet and porn? Just don't send a neat freak with a slob. And I think that an all male, heterosexual crew is the only way to go. But I'm not a sociologist either....
I really think that we are ready to go, we just need a friendly Queen to finance us. Wouldn't it be cool if Queen Elizabeth II browses slashdot? :)
If you want a great book on the subject, read The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin. It's a great book, discusses all of this, specifically in chapter 5 - 'Killing the Dragons'.
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
It's full of... dust?
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Venus has very little water, around 20 ppm according to one site I checked, and to get that you would have to extract it from sulfuric acid. Venus is thought to have lost almost all of its primordial water to photo dissociation, with the hydrogen then escaping to space. The evidence for this is a greatly elevated deuterium to hydrogen ratio compared to Earth.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
Thanks for the enlightenment :)
Be relentless!
It's about going to Mars because of a desire to learn about new environments and new science and new technology.
You do that with probes, not with people. Human space exploration is literally a worthless idea. Anything a human can do on Mars, a robot can do a thousand times as efficiently.
Unlike the Americas, Mars isn't hospitable to humans so there's no reason to live there.
No wonder my allergies are bothering me, and I thought it was a seasonal cold.
Professional Stranger
but the word supposed to be begun? began is past tense if i am correct and yeah i've probaby got mistakes too :D
If your neighbours roof is flying past your window, you know it's cyclone season.