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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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Its the Marlocks, Here on Marlocks we speak Marlocks, everything is Marlocks for that Marlocks is Marlocks... South Park!!
The dust kicked up after "John Carter" flopped....
Probably a meteor impact , but we will never know for sure.
Asteroid strike and associated plume, if not that.... Load your guns kids 'cause they are coming...
It's the latest ASF concert, The last one in this quadrant was at the limelight NYC back in the eighties, thats nicotines signature trademark, I'd recognize his show from three parsecs out. damn, can't believe tickitron didn't score any good seats, they shoulda tweeted us.....
I'm thinking photogenic anomaly caused by camera artifacts...same old answer we been gettin for a long time now on anything they don't first dibbsies on, one day, some uninterested third party is gonna set down on mars and gawd only knows what the heck we'll see on the uncensored internet then......
Hats off to the world of citizen scientists (a scientific american in this case), great pics, great call, whatever it is, thank the log for giving you credit. It is a wonder the mars obitors were not already on this. Keep looking up!!
The core of Mars is starting to warm, and soon it will increase its magnetism. The ammonia that has been trapped in a frozen state from all the matter that has decomposed will be released. The ammonia will react with the carbon dioxide atmosphere and cause a giant flaming ball of fire.
Sound scary? No, it is not. The reaction of the carbon dioxide and ammonia is burning and will create water, and an oxygen rich atmosphere that will sustain life.
Many have proposed that Mars once had life. It is basic logic. If a planet loses its magnetic protection, what will happen? No protection from cosmic radiation. If you have no protection from cosmic radiation, what will happen? Plants will die. If plants die, what will happen? Large amounts of carbon dioxide will enter the atmosphere as the animals die and their oxygen is not replaced. What happens when animals die? Ammonia. What happens when ammonia is cooled below its freezing point and kept there for a million years? It appears to be ice, but in reality, it is frozen ammonia. What happens to ammonia when it thaws? It turns into a vapor. What happens when that vapor combines with spare oxygen from the atmosphere? It turns into guess what? Water and Nitrogen the building blocks of plant life. What happens when it causes a cascade effect and burns off the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Guess what? More water and what else? Carbon
What is the building block of all life on earth? Carbon
All we need is a spark!
Everyone might think I am insane, but check out what the atmosphere of Mars is. There are very few processes that naturally create carbon dioxide.
How is it that an amateur astrophotographer discovered this mysterious cloud before NASA with all its attention on Mars?
And you wonder why the administration wants to shut down the space program. Millions of dollars in astronomical equipment and a guy with a supped - up telescopic camera finds this. LOL
Maybe Mars has global warming too.
More like the annual asian brown cloud that stretches for thousands of miles over land and ocean caused by burning dung and stripping the landscape for fuel to cook with than a power plant and a commuter.
Its Ming the Merciless!!! Where's Flash when you need him.
I wonder at the people who state that there is a lot of attention aimed at Mars. Two rovers, both parked for the winter, (one functional the other forever stationary), the rest on the ground totally defunct. Two in orbit that are taking low level stereoscopic high resolution photos that are planed out months in advance. Changes to any of these take a lot of work and time. It is not like changing apps on your phone. That goes the same for Hubble. But if the Mars Orbitor sees something worth showing us we will see it as fast as the operators can get it to us. Most of you may not remember Schumacher-Levy 9. When Jupitur was impacted by this broken up comet it was big time news. This may be something like that. Or it may not...
Sorry about the mis-spelled words... this puppy wouldn't take the changes!
We either stick with the interesting developments on Mars or morph into a discussion on climate change. Two points on the latter: Byzantine records show the Nile freezing over between 900 and 1050 AD (various timelines), recent sound ranging techniques in the Canadian arctic are showing various frozen forrests that may now be examined. So we know that northern africa has experienced severe cooling and the arctic once was warm enough to support forests. Neither indicates an end to the world , but it does show climate swings that we cannot control.
You can google both facts or consult geology texts like Press and Siever.
It's probably dust from storms on the surface.
Let' send Newt to check it out!!! LOl!!
It's because Kuato told Quaid to start the reactor.
You know when Wille E Coyote or Duck Dodger falls that long distance then ..*poof* ....except this is a big *POOF*. Yep, it's a big *POOF*!
If 2012 is the end of us, I would be interested in how many Washington elite are going to blast of for Mars...seems to the the spot we're thinking about possibility of life. Who going to lead? How are the different countrys are going to be selected? Wheres the beach? Whose got bottled water rights? Sanitation facilities? Who's going to own the first John Deere tractor ? Highways? McDonalds? Burger King? Martions may be having a bad time learning about cookouts..we see it as mysterious clouds (I might add it happens in my neighborhood also ..ribs I think). One of the contributors to this discussion is right..great fodder for postings.
"the chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one, he said"
Mad props for "The War of the Worlds" reference!
Who cares, Venus is Earths twin, it's full of greenhouse gases and is hotter than Mercury, Venus has a climate like hell, and that's what we are turning the Earth into, Mars is long dead (that's why they don't want to go to Mars, cause mabie the origins of life on earth started there -we can't go find out cause the Pope will get mad at science yet again proving them liars)
All rich people care about it money, they could care less about destroying the earth and everything on it to get money for themselves.
Do I detect a bit of class envy?
Not class envy, Venus envy. It's a guy thing.
It must be awful to be "arvarage"
I can tell from here that it's from the Mars Rover hot-dogging across the Martian desert.
"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."
Uh....it's still a mystery, even if it IS a "mere quirk".
I don't see what the big deal is.....it's just a little 'ole rain cloud.
Probably have thunderstorm warnings up.
ehem...Maybe an Aurora from the solar flares? The timing is the same as here, so that seems like the first assumption that could be made.. It would seem to me that the aurora there might look a bit different due to planet differences in physics.
At first thought... uh--no, the aurora here is generated by our magnetic field interacting w/ sun's ejections.. mars has practically no magneic field... then second thought... uh no!! It's too small/localized to be aurora(s)It's a spot, not a ring..--S--
Weathermen can't get it right on earth so why are they even trying. Now we're going to have to hear wind advisories for Mars too?
This is going to keep the alien theorist going to years! We will get to hear weekly how many times we were visited in the past, present and even in the future. This will have that guy with the hair combed like Einstein on TV for the next two years at least making ridiculous predictions that even "God must be laughing so hard he is holding his head in tears!"