Earth-like clouds on Mars...

***dutchie*** · Dec 15th, 2004 6:40 AM

Opportunity caught this view of Martian clouds over Endurance Crater at 9:30 a.m. (Mars time) on Nov. 16, 2004, its 290th mission day. Similar to cirrus clouds on Earth, these clouds are part of a band that forms near the equator when Mars is near the part of its orbit that is farthest from the Sun. Credit: NASA/JPL.

***Red Shift*** · Dec 15th, 2004 7:03 AM

wow, i take it these cloads are water based?

***dutchie*** · Dec 15th, 2004 7:43 AM

Originally Posted by Red Shift

wow, i take it these cloads are water based?

It's water ice, condensing on dust particles. Altitude is around 16 km.

***Red Shift*** · Dec 15th, 2004 7:48 AM

I never thought i'd see clouds on mars, hehe i guess i never thought about it before, but it looks very wierd

***dutchie*** · Dec 15th, 2004 9:00 AM

Clouds on Mars are not new knowledge. Here's a pic by pathfinder from october 1997.

**Zach** · Dec 15th, 2004 1:27 PM

but Mars cant hold them that long right? Its rotation speed isnt fast enough to hold an atmosphere.

**Havoc Angel** · Dec 15th, 2004 2:04 PM

Originally Posted by Zach

but Mars cant hold them that long right? Its rotation speed isnt fast enough to hold an atmosphere.

Actually it's the low gravity of Mars that lets it loose its atmosphere. It is so low that the solar wind is able to remove it from the upper reaches increasing the atmospheric bleed of Mars even more.
If it was rotation speed Venus wouldn't have its 90 odd atmospheres pressure as the revolution of Venus takes around one venus year and it's in the opposite direction that is normal (not sure which is normal but Venus is the other, heh)

I always thought the clouds on Mars were composed of carbon dioxide. That's at least what i heard when clouds were first discovered around the poles. It's old info so it could be wrong.

Anyway, if Mars wouldn't be so frigging cold and oxygen poor i'd move over.

***dutchie*** · Dec 16th, 2004 5:11 AM

Mars' atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide. The clouds are water ice. They mainly form at the equator, but there have been occasions when the entire hemisphere was clouded over. The ice cover on the poles consists of frozen carbon dioxide.

Rotation speed has nothing to do with gravity or exit velocity, that's true.

***Red Shift*** · Dec 16th, 2004 5:41 AM

Originally Posted by Havoc Angel

Anyway, if Mars wouldn't be so frigging cold and oxygen poor i'd move over.

Have you seen any of the ideas scientists are coming up with?
The one i have seen which is most likely to work is to construct a large mirror which would reflect the suns rays and heat onto the frozen ice in the southern ice cap of mars, inducing a greenhouse effect, alas many centuries would have to pass before temperatures and pressures rose high enogh so that plants could survive there, guess it mean anyone alive now ain't going ;)

**Zach** · Dec 16th, 2004 7:09 PM

Originally Posted by dutchie

Mars' atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide. The clouds are water ice. They mainly form at the equator, but there have been occasions when the entire hemisphere was clouded over. The ice cover on the poles consists of frozen carbon dioxide.

Rotation speed has nothing to do with gravity or exit velocity, that's true.

Ok, well if its not that then it is because Mars lacked a magnetic field. The solar wind was able to blow the atmosphere away becasue the magnetic field could not protect the planet. That is the most recent belief.

And since i am talking about magnetic fields. Did everyone here? Earths magnetic field is becomming weaker. They said that we are in the process of the poles switching. Basically, North will become South(to a compass). I will try to find a diagram of it, but the materials in the core of the Earth is moving around to different areas. This has happened many times on Earth before. Currently, this process is 700,000 years overdue(i believe). Scientists believe that this has already happened many times in the Earth's past. They are not sure if anything will happen to the life on Earth. Some think that when the magnetic field becomes too weak, the radiation in the solar wind from the sun will be able to penetrate Earths magnetic field. They think that we could end up like Mars. They believe there will be many areas where the radiation will be pulled to while the Earth is undergoing this process. This could kill many people depending on where these areas are located. This is kind of hard for me to explain. If you know a lot about the magnetic field, then you might know what i am talking about.

And yes Dutchie, i now understand what you are saying about the clouds

**Zach** · Dec 16th, 2004 7:12 PM

Oh, and the reason i thought it was rotation speed was that we learned that a planet let its atmosphere escape due to slow speed of something. I thought it was rotation but i guess i am wrong. I believe the planet is Mercury(even though Mercury still has ana extremely small amount of an atmosphere).

**Zach** · Dec 16th, 2004 7:27 PM

Heres a link that talks about the magnetic field on Earth. I mostly gave this link because i want you to notice the two images of the inside of the Earth and how that "magma" is shifting.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...hmagfield.html

***dutchie*** · Dec 17th, 2004 2:21 AM

Here's a link that explains the shifting of the poles.

Diminishing of the earth's magnetic fields won't affect the atmosphere - it won't get blown away. The gravitational pull on the atmosphere is what's keeping it in.

However, the geomagnetic field does protect us from dangerous cosmic rays.
See article here (also mentioned on AO homepage).

**Zach** · Dec 17th, 2004 3:07 PM

Originally Posted by dutchie

Diminishing of the earth's magnetic fields won't affect the atmosphere - it won't get blown away. The gravitational pull on the atmosphere is what's keeping it in.

Didnt say that it would. Said that its a possibility