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Wayne Jaeschke
Amateur astrophotographer Wayne Jaeschke captured this image of a "terminator projection" rising up from the edge of the Martian disk at about the 1 o'clock position on March 22. The inset photo is a 200 percent enlargement of the region around the projection. For more, check out Exosky.net, Jaeschke's website.
Amateur astronomers are puzzling over a seemingly anomalous cloud that has shown up on images of Mars taken over the past few days. Is it really a cloud, or a trick of the eye? Does it really extend 150 miles up from the surface, as some of the observers suggest? And what churned up all that stuff, anyway? The amateurs and the pros will be trying to resolve those questions before the phenomenon fades away.
"It's not completely unexpected," Jonathon Hill, a member of the team at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, told me today. "But it's bigger than we would expect, and it's definitely something that our atmosphere guys want to take a look at."
Hill and his colleagues will be looking at the area where the cloud was spotted using the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, which is one of the instruments on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
"In the command upload we're preparing to send today, we've included observations that will hopefully capture some of these recent clouds," Hill wrote in an email. "Our THEMIS camera on Mars Odyssey is capable of acquiring simultaneous visible and thermal infrared images, so our atmospheric researchers are pretty excited about the possibility of not only getting a good look at the cloud structures, but also their temperatures."
THEMIS will be checking out heightened cloud activity around Mars' shield volcanoes as well as around the southern site spotted by the amateurs. Pictures from a camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, called the Mars Color Imager, or MARCI, might provide further clues about the southern cloud feature. And amateur astronomers are sending out the alert for observers to keep a close watch on the Red Planet over the coming days.
There's been lots of buzz about the high-altitude cloud on Cloudy Nights and other online discussion forums for skywatchers. Sky & Telescope's Sean Walker says the puff of white was first noticed on March 20 by Wayne Jaeschke, an amateur astrophotographer from Pennsylvania. Since then, other observers have identified the feature in images going back as far as March 12.
All sorts of hypotheses have been proposed: Could it be debris kicked up by a meteoric impact? Is it a huge weather system? Is it merely a funny kind of glint caused by a combination of lighting and atmospheric conditions?
In an email, Jaeschke told me that the feature is "still there, although it has decreased in size over the past two days."
"This has led some to believe that it was some sort of transient-type event," Jaeschke said. So it's crucial to make as many observations of the area as possible over the next few days.
Wayne Jaeschke created this animated GIF image of Mars with the cloud coming into view on the upper right edge of the planet's disk. For more from Jaeschke, check out his Exosky website.
Walker says the feature is currently well-placed for viewing from the Americas. He says it should show up on the edge of Mars' disk around 1:10 a.m. ET Saturday, and 39.5 minutes later on each succeeding night. Consult the photos above for guidance on where to point a medium-size telescope — keeping in mind that these images are inverted to appear as they would through a telescope, with south pointing "up." Arizona State University's Hill says the area in question is called Terra Cimmeria.
Observation reports should be sent via email to Richard McKim, director of the British Astronomical Association's Mars Section. (The linked website includes McKim's email address, as well as a picture of the chap.)
Solving this mystery — if it indeed turns out to be an honest-to-goodness mystery rather than a mere quirk — may require additional data from the big guns of the astronomy world. But in any case, the episode illustrates once again how much amateurs can contribute to uncovering the wonders of the cosmos.
"When it comes to Mars, amateurs and professionals working together give you way more insight into ongoing processes, because with so many amateurs, you're continuously monitoring changes in the planet," Hill told me. "They provide a perspective and a context that we don't usually get."
More about amateur astronomy:
- Amateur takes stunning photo of new solar system
- Amateur astronomers discover a near-Earth asteroid
- 10-year-old Canadian girl discovers a supernova
- Astronomers sound death knell for supposed doomsday comet
Tip o' the Log to Sky & Telescope's Sean Walker and Kelly Beatty, as well as Wayne Jaeschke.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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I bet the EPA fines them and makes them put a scrubber on it.
That's pretty neat. I wonder what it is? My guess would be dust cloud blown up from a windstorm. But then again I profess only limited knowledge of astronomy and mars.
I,m thinking it's got to be from an impact
read.....physics for future presidents.....even free at the library.....left wing phys. prof. auth. (berkely) got put out to dry for writing it.....
says it's all a manmade fake.....sham on itelligence......it's made completely up.....
thanks gore.....with your 12 bedroom 8 car garage and monthly electric bill of $2,300 !!
It's Obamacare Martian version - it just collapsed their economy..........................
Interesting image but in my opinion, it is an alien vehicle and/or emissions from that UFO. It is huge!!! Or, there is some Mars alien base on the surface causing that image to appear!
Lighten-up folks and let curiosity guide you in all endeavors; it makes more things an enjoyable event. I agree all things die even the earth. What would be best is to look for new worlds, life friendly planets, and perhaps finding a chance to boldly go out into the universe. Find some friends or at least give mankind a chance to survive.
Clearly anamoulous weather on other planets is caused by us not being taxed enough by our governments, just like here apparently.
Mars is experiencing severe global warming which are melting its ice caps. They need carbon credits.
The birth of Melancholia.
Now there's an amateur astronomer with a keen eye ....
Thanks Alan Boyle ....
It has been said by scientists, the greenhouse gases turn into chlorine and cause these changes on earth. How many swimming pools are there on this planet with chlorine put into them every week?. Think about that one.
That plume or cloud on Mars, could be from a rock hitting it or most anything, soon we should know.
Many thanks to all of the Amateur Astronomers who keep their comments Scientific. We need more serious comments please.
Mars has water, Mars has oxygen, Mars exhibits green colored growth every Martain Spring, Mars has life and everyone and their dog knows it. It seems that NASA is dragging its' feet to get more funding before announcing the obvious. Among other things, they have obviously and deliberately sent rovers to the deadest and most arid areas of Mars (the equivalent of Death Valley or the Sahara here on earth) rather than to the poles where there is water or where there are signs of vegetation....Meanwhile, as all the science geeks already know, NASA is resustitating nd revamping their otally lifeless and airless, waterless moon proipaganda they have maintained for decades to announce there is a considerable amount of water and-hence-oxygen. Someday, when the Chinese arrive, it will be announced that there is Moon life also underground where there is water and oxygen derived from the breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen....
Scientifically possible? yes. Probable??? eh.... not so much,,, did you forget radiation? how about extreme temperature? Just what area of education/experience allows you to make such statements? Facts!!! not opinions will win the day....
MARS is pretty far. I'm pretty sure in a few months the large mother ships will be overhead. Maybe around mid to late December 2012.
hahaha... HG Wells was right. Get the military and all Biological Warfare specialists to concentrate on London and New Jersey. It's a puff of a Martian cannon as it ejects another invading shell at Earth!
Amateurs have made many, many important discoveries in the history of astronomy.
"Almighty has revealed the secret to me and not only the secret of the moon and
the earth to me, but has also given to me the secret knowledge of more planets,
other than the earth, even to Mars, the civilization on it and they have the
language of the people on Mars and they can speak to these people, they can
question them. They are a people that is not exactly like us, but they
walk on two feet, like you and I. But they are taller than we are. And they are
more skinnier than we are. And they live 1,200 of our earth years. The white
race have been suspecting that there was life on Mars, not only on Mars but
there is life on Venus."(Elijah Muhammad, 1934). Any questions?
Well Sum, returning to the subject of the article, scientists have spotted a mysterious cloud on Mars, and a cloud of noxious gas around Uranus.
It was an eruption of Martian Santorum
That is John Carter jumping.
That's it! I need a huge telescope!
Well, there was THIS earlier this month. Maybe this is a colossal version of the same?
Perhaps the "FALCON" has crash landed. Any sign that R2D2, C3pio, or Solo survived? Oh yes, and what of "Chewey"?
The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one.
But still they come...
I take that reservoir statment back.....
This is too cool. Can a man survive on mars like we did on the moon? I wish we had the tech to get their quicker, it sounds like a very active planet.