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Mysterious White Cloud Hangs Over Martian Volcano (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the ominous-clouds dept.

Last month, the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter spotted a white cloud suspended over the western slope of Arsia Mons, an enormous volcano near the red planet's equator. The 930-mile-long cloud looks like the kind of volcanic plumes huffed out by Earth's active volcanoes -- but it's not; "Arsia Mons is long extinct -- its last eruption is estimated to have occurred around 50 million years ago," reports Motherboard. From the report: The volcano still plays a role in shaping the water-ice cloud, though, along with atmospheric dust levels and the Martian seasons. With its 12-mile-high peak and diameter of nearly 400 miles, Arsia Mons is 30 times more voluminous than the largest volcanoes on Earth. Its humongous bulk condenses and cools air currents as they pass over the summit, creating this âoeorographic cloudâ -- a nephologic formation that tend to form over leeward (downwind) slopes -- on the western flank of the volcano.

27 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. So it's not mysterious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    When did headlines evolve to say the opposite of what the article says?

    1. Re:So it's not mysterious. by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

      Maybe it is being made by the Mysterons? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  2. There are no air currents on Mars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Mars has an atmosphere, not air.

    1. Re:There are no air currents on Mars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Air and atmosphere are used interchangeably. you can find articles on the offical NASA website referring to "martian air". Case in point, these articles found with Google. You can email NASA that they're doing it wrong.
      https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/dust_devils.html
      https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/472/10-things-mars-helicopter/
      https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12083

    2. Re:There are no air currents on Mars. by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      Mars has far less atmosphere than Earth, but it does have some. That is how it had dust storms all summer when it was in a good position to observe from Earth.

    3. Re: There are no air currents on Mars. by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Whoosh. Very faint though, in the thin... air.

    4. Re:There are no air currents on Mars. by tigersha · · Score: 1

      So what are we supposed to call the currents in the gas around Mars then? Gas currents? Methane Currents? Martian Atmospheric Gas Flow Movements? MAGFMs?

      Seriously, Air Currents are a good enough analogue.

      --
      The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
  3. You know what this means - by sheramil · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have a new... er... Martian Pope!

  4. Motherboard? by msauve · · Score: 5, Informative

    Really, clickbait to a site which describes it as "a booger?" How about a link to the source.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Motherboard? by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

      > Since a human being exposed for two days to even 10
      > roentgens would only have an even chance of survival , the
      > radiation belt obviously present an obstacle to space flight."
      >
      > Yet they sent men to the Moon a mere 10 years later (take
      > note of the rustic '60s hardware and the narrow window they
      > shove anti-radiation shields

      A few answers...
      1) They did not spend "2 days" in the belts. They "rocketed through" at earth escape velocity.
      2) You're talking about the radiation in space. The walls of the Apollo capsule cut down on the radiation passing through.
      3) The flight path avoided the worst of the Van Allen belts (around earth's equator) by flying around it.

      https://www.popsci.com/blog-ne...
      > Over the course of the lunar missions, astronauts were
      > exposed to doses lower than the yearly 5 rem average
      > experienced by workers with the Atomic Energy Commission
      > who regularly deal with radioactive materials.

      > and geostationary satellites, invented by *a science fiction author*, the famous Arthur C. Clarke

      Get serious already.. Physics 101. Since the time of Sir Isaac Newton (and his formulation of the law of gravity). it has been known that a satellite (natural or artificial) at a specific distance above the equator would revolve around the earth synchronously with the earth's rotation. Arthur C. Clarke "invented" nothing. He merely wrote a sci-fi story about the (mis)use of such a satellite to broadcast porn

      > remain fully functional for decades in the midst of the 2nd radiation belt at ~22000 miles of altitude.

      It's called "hardened circuitry". Consumer grade electronixs would die in a few months. One reason satellites are so expensive is that their circuitry is hardened against radiation. It could be done for your laptop... if you were willing to pay $50,000 for it.

      > What about constellations that haven't updated their shapes
      > since the times of Ptolemy who himself, for his Almagest,
      > relied on even older, by about 500 years, documents?

      They *DO* change... ve-r-r-r-r-y slowly. Try 150,000 years... https://www.wired.com/2015/03/...

      > * How is it that daylight opacifies the sky so that no *light emitting* star is to be seen from Earth

      Sigh... it does no such thing. Starlight is *VERY* faint. Our eyes (and cameras) only have a small dynamic range between the dimmest object they can resolve while not getting blinded (cameras overexposed) by brighter objects or background. Have you ever been out in the countryside at night at new moon and seen The Milky Way? Try it at night from a city with streetlights present You'll have a hard time seeing any stars. The stars are just as bright during the day as they are at night.

      BTW, same thing happened on the Moon (Apollo camera images) with no atmosphere. The reflected glare off the moon's surface drowns out the stars when photographing the rover, etc. However, pointing up at the sky would see stars if no reflacted glare off mountains, etc..

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
    2. Re:Motherboard? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      How about a link to the source.

      Thanks for keeping up the good work.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  5. Re:What is it? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 2

    We know that you can hear us Earthmen.

  6. Prepare for tripods by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 1

    The Martian's are firing their giant cannons to launch their war-machines towards us. The invasion of Earth has begun.

    1. Re:Prepare for tripods by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2

      The Martian's are firing their giant cannons to launch their war-machines towards us. The invasion of Earth has begun.

      Oh, please! Everyone knows the Martian cannons have a GREEN flash, not a white one....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  7. Re:There is neither outer space by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "John Bahcall was a promising young astrophysicist when he was introduced to Gödel at a small Institute dinner. He identied himself as a physicist, to which Gödel’s curt response was "I don’t believe in natural science." The philosopher Thomas Nagel recalled also being seated next to Gödel at a small gathering for dinner at the Institute and discussing the mind—body problem with him, a philosophical chestnut that both men had tried to crack. Nagel pointed out to Gödel that Gödel’s extreme dualist view (according to which souls and bodies have quite separate existences, linking up with one another at birth to conjoin in a sort of partnership that is severed upon death) seems hard to reconcile with the theory of evolution. Gödel professed himself a nonbeliever in evolution and topped this off by pointing out, as if this were additional corroboration for his own rejection of Darwinism: “You know Stalin didn’t believe in evolution either, and he was a very intelligent man.”" (Incompleteness: the proof and paradox of Kurt Gödel, Rebecca Goldstein, pp. 31-32)

  8. Typo by IndigoZulu · · Score: 1

    That should be "orographic cloud" not "âoeorographic cloudâ."

  9. Last scene of original 'Total Recall' playing out: by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    "Get Your Ass to Mars" activated the pyramid.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  10. Milestone Achieved by SaBumNim · · Score: 1

    Snoop Dogg is the first to land on Mars!

  11. Like a lenticular cloud by PPH · · Score: 2

    Lenticular clouds are also created by air currents being lifted over mountains (or other terrain features). But they tend to disappear a short distance downwind of this point due to the air descending and the condensation re-evaporating. Either meteorology and thermodynamics are vastly different on Mars than on Earth, or this appears to be some gas venting from the summit.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. That's a cloud? by reboot246 · · Score: 1

    I thought it was just a smudge on my telescope's eyepiece.

  13. This scene :) btw. by burni2 · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    1. Re:This scene :) btw. by MrKaos · · Score: 1

      yep - this is THE scene - thanks!

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  14. Family squabbles by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Jupiter: "Okay, who farted?"

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  15. Re:Is it pointing at earth?? by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    It's Marvin the Martian powering up his subterranean giant laser gun

    He found the plug.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  16. Re:Last scene of original 'Total Recall' playing o by sabbede · · Score: 1

    Quaid activated The Machine!

  17. Re:Last scene of original 'Total Recall' playing o by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    See you ad dhe pardy Richtder!

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  18. Re:Last scene of original 'Total Recall' playing o by sabbede · · Score: 1

    Now that is how you disarm your opponent!