Remember Space Odyssey 2010.

"It's shrinking !!!"

:-)

I must admit that I can't quite follow your logic. Are you blaming astronomers for global warming or not solving global warming? Do you think they should all be banished for not solving this world's problems? I think that actually falls on all of us. Regardless of the state of this planet, which is a mess, something interesting did just happen on Mars and it has been noticed. Should we just ignore it because we have problems at home? So are you doing anything to solve the problems here or are you just choosing to blame astronomers for noticing that something happened elsewhere in the solar system?

Do you think that you need to seek in Mars to see "anomalies" How about in your neighborhood with this heat....Chicago has 80 degree temperatures in MARCH. That is ABNORMAL...Stop looking at Mars and see how sick our poor planet is.

There are plenty of people studying Earth's climate. Besides, study of the Martian climate can give us insight into how are own climate works.

Someone call Willie Nelson...

Alf? Did you fart?

@kannin - "no long term effect"?? How many centuries do ice ages last? Don't these changes usually take thousands of years? Somehow they seem to be speeding up over, shall we say, the past 100 years. Wonder why? Could it be industrialization exacerbated by unprecidented (and ever accelerating) population growth? What will happen when we get 10 or 15 billion people on this planet? The time to save our planet is now (if it isn't already too late). With that said, what harm is there in studying the universe at the same time?

Global Warming on MARS!! Who would have thought it possible??

Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.

In 2005 data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide "ice caps" near Mars's south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.

Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, says the Mars data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun.

"The long-term increase in solar irradiance is heating both Earth and Mars," he said.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

The Earth is in great shape; it's the only living planet in the solar system. Have you seen it? It's literally crawling with life! This is no less true than it was 1, 10, or 100 million years ago, and it will remain so 1, 10, or 100 million years into the future. What was the problem again?

Philonious - At the risk of being collapsed because this has nothing to do with the cloud on Mars, what, exactly are you worried about being destroyed?

"The planet"? Nothing short of an impact with Mars would do that.

Humans? That would solve the 10 to 15 billion population problem you mentioned.

Plants and animals? Paleontology shows that increased climatological stress increases the rate of speciation. So, while I feel bad about the loss of eohippus, saber tooth cats, and the dire wolf, I like horseback riding and am greatly comforted by my orange tabby and golden lab.

"But the important point is that the Earth's climate and ecosystem has undergone far more radical changes in the past with no long term ill effect and I am sure that will be the case during the current climate change."

No, actually there hasn't been a time in history where there has been this much CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, at least since the beginning of the chemical changes that led us to where we are today.

Pay attention.

@Ranger Combat Vet "No, actually there hasn't been a time in history where there has been this much CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere"

Ranger - Don't make smug pronouncements in areas where you have zero expertise.

"There has historically been much more CO2 in our atmosphere than exists today. For example, during the Jurassic Period (200 mya), average CO2 concentrations were about 1800 ppm or about 4.7 times higher than today. The highest concentrations of CO2 during all of the Paleozoic Era occurred during the Cambrian Period, nearly 7000 ppm -- about 18 times higher than today. "- http://geocraft.com

doh!

FACT: Last year many places in the country experienced record low temperatures and record snowfall amounts.

FACT: Global temperatures have actually decreased over the last decade.

FACT: Even if rising CO2 levels actually may be good for the planet because plant life thrives on it, it is in everyone's best interest to do everything we can to keep the world clean, so the above two facts do not give us a free pass to leave the planet dirtier than we left it.

Let's just stop with the BS, however, where global warming advocates completely ignore or rationalize events that contradict their message and then go overboard on any little event that supports it. It's just embarrassing.

Brutisbear, Mars has always had an atmosphere, and just a suggestion, not every subject requires you to retreat to your Unibomber cabin. This story is interesting because of the height of the dust and it's sudden appearance, I'm pretty sure Obama has nothing to do with it.

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies. So basically, all the planets other than OURS. These are the people who are focused on seeing all the other planets that can be seen from our own and their science doesn't really have any impact on our own planet, with the exception of solar flares, comets, etc...besides, a mild winter doesn't define "global warming" neither does hot summers, it deals with extremes and the overall all climate effects on the planet as a whole...not one winter and you whining about wonderful 80 degree heat in Chicago. Stop crying and get off the computer and go enjoy a nice walk in the park while you still can.

"....Chicago has 80 degree temperatures in MARCH. That is ABNORMAL...Stop looking at Mars and see how sick our poor planet is."

Correct IRESPOND, it IS abnormal. However, it's not unusual. Here is Cleveland, it's been abnormally hot the last week as well. It was almost 80 degrees a couple days ago. The record high for that day was 83.. set in 1938. A litle earlier in the week, March 19th, our record high is 76... set in 1903. March 18th, 75 degrees, also set in 1903. I can do this all day. My point should be obvious.

I agree that the climate is changing. The climate is always changing. My whole state was once under a mile of ice at one point.

its amazing how many people buy into big moneys propaganda that global warming doesnt exist.it just goes to show how gullible some people are.no amount of evidence will ever be enough to convince them.

as for the article.i am courious as to what might have caused this cloud.meteor strike maybe?

x

Regarding "Earth vs. Mars (space)". It is a FACT that planet Earth is doomed. If for no other reason then the Sun will eventually self destruct and take out Earth; but there are other reasons that could be much sooner. The ONLY way to ensure survival is to "Conquer" (not just explore) space, so that when the time comes, humanity will be spread out among the universe.

I'm with slodon, kannin, and Dave on this one. And, I do find it interesting; it remains to be seen whether it's a cloud from within or without. I'd think some planetary strike would've been witnessed if that is what caused the cloud, but perhaps not. Solar flares have been quite active for some time, and recent ones (past few years) have been proven to raise temperatures on planets, such as Mars... could be that some ice has melted from Her poles. Could also be some form of volcanic activity from below.

No matter what, there could be much learned from this and that does make it important; learning about how other planets near to us react, what changes they go through has to be important to what Earth goes through similarly. More information is never bad, especially when it takes conjecture out of the partisan hoopla....

Global warming has happened before and is followed by glaciation.

Extinction of species is normal and continues to happen. It makes room for new species to evolve.

To those who think we can save the world for future generations, we need to consider that our species is evolving as well and humans, in the form we have now, will have a different appearance in 250 years. We are taller and fatter from our ancestors of 250 years ago.

It's called natural selection.

I think my ex wife made it to Mars and is cooking dinner.

Irespond, just what are you idea's on solving the earths problems? At least something that would be accomplished in less than a few hundred or a few thousand years. The population keeps on growing and unless you think people should start dying faster (wouldn't help anyway) or go without heat and food and any viable form of transportation, then explain YOUR solution.

My money is on a strike by a meteorite or asteroid.

I don't think we would be able to see the meteorite or asteroid. Mars is pretty far away, and it doesn't have to be a huge object. The low gravity and thin atmosphere wouldn't pose much resistance to debris being thrown up.

And we probably can learn alot from the debris that would be thrown up. I would love to see some core samples of the Martian surface. But we don't have the equipment to go to mars, bore a hole, then analyze that. Perhaps by something hitting the surface, it might bring some of the material under the surface up for us.

I wish this story came out sooner. Lots of people have telescopes and just love stuff like this.

Oh, and note to the writer - not every telescope is a reflector design. There are plenty of refractors out there that don't flip the image or worse like other designs that flip and mirror it. The big refractors are very big and heavy, but they produce the cleanest images. Just stick with North or South on Mars and people can figure it out. On mars it's easy since the ice caps are very different sizes on the two poles.

Like ya, Jack.... why can't we use what we have while working on clean technologies? Afterall, without money how far can any get, be it at home, pertaining to businesses, government and all else? People somehow seem to think that selling out Our economy to 3rd world wages in China, etc... will somehow help supposed 'man made global warming' while polluting worse on the other side of the globe... SAME globe.

What's become of common sense? I do wonder if solar flares are the cause of the Mar's cloud whether we'll hear of it or not; afterall, doesn't fit some's agendas......

There has been a lot of talk about what mite be causing this, like a dust storm, or a small meteor hitting the planet, and throwing up dust, let me add to this, I wonder with all the Solar Activity going on the past two months, could something in the planets thin atmosphere be reacting to this.

Have a good day, Tom And Lyn

I certainly hope someone is taking some spectrographic readings on the reflected light from this cloud, so we can see what's in it. I agree with the others, this is probably a meteor strike that happened on the far side, but it could be a methane or CO2 belch from a pocket of frozen gas that happened to let go, or it might be just the temporary confluence of winds in a standing wave (like lenticular clouds you see in some "UFO" pictures.

As I see it, the problem is that Global warming is a slow trend that will take several more decades to really start impacting our lives. So when the warm air in winter destabilizes the arctic air mass and sends an entire continent into the deep freeze, it's hard to explain to some that even though they are freezing their widgets off, the average global temperature is still rising. Add in a multi-billion dollar campaign of disinformation by the money-hungrey pertoleum corporations, and you pretty much have ther mess we find ourselves in today, with the United States of America being the one single solitair nation that doubts climate change, and therefore has done nothing to slow it down. yay. Aren't we proud?

Uh, guys, I hate to mention this, but this is EXACTLY how H G Wells, War of the Worlds begins. Astronomers observe strange phenomenon on the surface of Mars. They appear to be projections or smoke rising from the planet surface.

How long did you say it takes to get to Mars from Earth and vice versa? Eighteen months? Twenty months? Well, they may miss the Mayan date by a few months, but they are coming!

I got about half way through this thread and I couldn't take the immaturity anymore! You're like a bunch of school children fighting over your pet theories, so stuck on what you "know" to be true you won't bother listening to anyone else. That goes for both sides of the debate, by the way. But for what it is worth... FYI -- what has popularly come to be called "Global Warming" does not, in fact, mean that scientists think the temperatures will go up exponentially. Put simply: The phenomenon the inaccurate term has come to describe really means a growing instability of the climate, with greater, more frequent highs and greater lows and faster swings between the two then recorded in the past -- with an overall average temp increase. If you are going to debate it, at least debate the theory as it is meant to be. Yes, temperatures have swung wildly over the years our planet has existed. Yes, there have been times in the earth's past when CO2 levels have been as high and higher as they are today due to natural causes (primarily volcano emissions). Nothing in the poorly named "Global Warming" theory disputes that, by the way. But during those times, the earth would not have been hospitable for humans, which does seem like a significant issue. But whatever. Do I adhere to Global Warming doctrine? Not particularly. I think the jury is still out on that. However, what I do not understand is why some people are so very much against even looking into it. Do you really think that what humans have been up to, spewing ginormous quantities of chemicals into the atmosphere couldn't possibly have any measurable effect? What would lead you to believe that? Yes, CO2 levels have been high before and yes, a massive volcanic eruption could, concievably, do more damage in a shorter amount of time than all human activity -- but so what?? So what if the planet could kill us off faster than we can kill ourselves? Even if we are killing ourselves a little more slowly -- dead is still dead. Why is that not worth studying? Why are you so afraid of research and healthy debate?

Did I miss something? I thought the article was about a mysterious cloud on Mars, not delirious clowns on Earth.

I would love to see some core samples of the Martian surface. But we don't have the equipment to go to mars, bore a hole, then analyze that.

Actually, the current Mars Rover named Curiosity is on its way now and getting there around August 5th.

It will be taking core samples down to a couple meters. It's basically a very high tech laboratory on wheels and will be doing all sorts of analysis including spectral analysis of interesting looking rocks blasted with a laser. We should be getting a lot of new and valuable information possibly including any indicators building blocks of life (like amino acids) for past or current time frames. The spot selected is in a very low lying area that would have been one of the last places water would have been on the surface and is believed to have clay deposits which both should contain many layers of history and also better preserve any material by being trapped within the clay.

He must be mad about the horrible movie we made about him here on earth.

Hey, my wife and I loved that movie as did most of the others in the theater I attended.

"Beejerino": Do you believe everything that the snide, snotty movie reviewers write--without seeing the movie yourself?

It's Zim and Gir driving Mars!

Wrong baddie. You mean Ice Warriors.

Nice to see a few fellow Whovians around this thread! ;-)

Pyramid of Mars had no Ice Warriors - just the ancient "gods" of the Egyptians. Loved that particular story line!!

Rick, I think that idea is just crazy enough to be true. I commend you on your comment.

Actually if it was a volcanic cloud, then it would completely rewrite what we know of Mars. However, I think it'd more likely be a Meteor impact.

Given that Mars has a close to solid core and hasn't been tectonically active for a VERY long time, there's little chance it's a volcano. Then again, without plates, the pressure of any volcano that DOES pop up would be pretty high...

Beer fart

3. Haboob

I once saw a very high cloud here that looked like a fake cloud

Was it during one of the regular MJ medication breaks in San Fransisco?

No, it was the only strange thing I ever saw in the sky. I knew it was way high up because it reflected the already set sun. Also strange was that a "star" appeared near its path. The star winked out after a minute. The star was motionless relative to the specks on my windshield. It wasn't a plane, no other stars visible.

It sounds like you probably witnessed a rocket launch, with the cloud being an exhaust/vapor trail, and the 'star' the actual body of the rocket reflecting the sunlight. Actually during early night you can often see satellites moving across the sky, with changing brightness as they tumble, and disappearing as they move out of the sunlight.

I wish that was the case but the "star" was still, very bright for 60 seconds. It appeared when the cloud was a distance of 50 moon diameters from it. Cloud passed within 1 moon diameter, star faded out shortly after the passing. This is in Minnesota.

It's not unusual to see the sun reflecting off of jets low in the horizon and seem to be stationary because they're very far away and possibly heading toward or away from you. A satellite appearing low on the horizon may do this too if it's heading toward or away from you. Everything you've prescribed here sounds pretty mundane. Clouds and a star-like light in the sky. Two things that are not unusual to see in the sky.

probably did.

Why? Because asteroid impacts, volcanoes, or dust storms are implausible?

I am betting on an asteroid impact. I hope they are looking for new craters.

So MSNBC, any updates?

Or the Martian probe that missed the planet, and caught it on the flip flop.