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Mysterious Cloud on Mars May Reveal Unseen Physics
Confirmed
In Short: The AMEC was first revealed to the public in 2018 by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, which has viewed the recurrent cloud repeatedly since.
A new model suggests Mars may host ice-forming physics never directly observed before, according to a study published in Ars Technica.
The Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) emerges every day during spring and summer on Mars, stretching westward across the planet at more than 600 kilometers per hour (about 370 mph), until it reaches up to 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) long, nearly twice the length of the United Kingdom.
This phenomenon requires extreme conditions—a sharp temperature drop of 30° Celsius within 10 minutes and high relative humidity, according to Samuel Atwood, an atmospheric and planetary scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
The AMEC was first revealed to the public in 2018 by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, which has viewed the recurrent cloud repeatedly since.
Scientists using the Mars Express, in combination with a state-of-the-art meteorological model of the Red Planet, have found that there may be some very exotic physics behind Mars’s most curious cloud.
The study was surprising because “homogeneous nucleation is generally treated in our field as this theoretical concept,” says Atwood.
The AMEC might not need dust to kick-start its formation, according to the study.
The researchers’ discovery proved that at least this particular angrite sample could not have formed inside a small meteorite, as a body with a radius of at least 621 miles would be required to generate the pressure needed to produce the crystals.
What this adds
The unusual combination of shergottite and chondritic characteristics in NWA 13441 suggests that portions of Mars may have retained relatively unchanged material despite billions of years of geological activity.
The spacecraft MMX, launched from Japan, aims to grab samples from Mars’ moon Phobos, which could help resolve the moon’s origins.
Background
Scientists have discovered a mysterious cloud on Mars, known as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), which may reveal physics never seen in nature.
What's confirmed
- A new model suggests Mars may host ice-forming physics never directly observed before, according to a study published in Ars Technica.
- The Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) emerges every day during spring and summer on Mars, stretching westward across the planet at more than 600 kilometers per hour (about 370 mph), until it reaches up to 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) long, nearly twice the length of the United Kingdom.
- This phenomenon requires extreme conditions—a sharp temperature drop of 30° Celsius within 10 minutes and high relative humidity, according to Samuel Atwood, an atmospheric and planetary scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
- The AMEC was first revealed to the public in 2018 by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express, which has viewed the recurrent cloud repeatedly since.
- Scientists using the Mars Express, in combination with a state-of-the-art meteorological model of the Red Planet, have found that there may be some very exotic physics behind Mars’s most curious cloud.
- The study was surprising because “homogeneous nucleation is generally treated in our field as this theoretical concept,” says Atwood.
- The AMEC might not need dust to kick-start its formation, according to the study.
- The researchers’ discovery proved that at least this particular angrite sample could not have formed inside a small meteorite, as a body with a radius of at least 621 miles would be required to generate the pressure needed to produce the crystals.
What's still developing
- Scientists investigating an enormous cloud that mysteriously appears over Mars each year have uncovered evidence of an exotic physical process never before identified in a planetary atmosphere.
- As winds push past the roughly 12-mile-high volcano, they lift pockets of moist air to unusually high altitudes.
- When we think of asteroids, we often think of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that contains the majority of the known asteroids in our solar system.
- But one Centaur called Chariklo stands out not only because it’s the largest known Centaur with a radius of 125 kilometers (78 miles), but because it is the only Centaur to have a ring system, with Chariklo and its ring system discovered in 1997 and 2013, respectively.
- The unusual combination of shergottite and chondritic characteristics in NWA 13441 suggests that portions of Mars may have retained relatively unchanged material despite billions of years of geological activity.
- They believe NWA 13441 formed near the boundary between Mars’ crust and mantle before volcanic activity brought the material to the surface.
- He gained international recognition for his lunar research before moving to Cambridge University, where he analysed meteorites found in Antarctica that were believed to have come from Mars.
- Analysts identified features of Beagle 2 in photos of Mars Pillinger died in May 2014 after suffering a brain haemorrhage and falling into a coma.
- In a recent paper published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the team revealed evidence of an ancient protoplanet that may have been as large as Mars based on simulations of how the meteorite sample may have formed.
- Provisionally designated Noctis Mons, the newly-discovered volcano is located just south of Mars’ equator, in Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus, west of Valles Marineris, the planet’s vast canyon system.
- In addition to the volcano, the authors discovered a 5,000-km2 (1930 square mile) area of volcanic deposits within the volcano’s perimeter presenting a large number of low, rounded and elongated, blister-like mounds.
- Phobos samples could help resolve the moon’s origins JAXA hopes MMX’s observations and returned samples will help establish whether Phobos formed from debris created by a collision or was captured by Mars’s gravity.