Astronomy Picture of the Day: 12/20/13 - Dust Devil Trails on Mars

When most of us think of the Red Planet, we picture a dead planet, home to a seemingly endless red horizon, chock-full of rock and dust, with the sun appearing as a much smaller point in the sky than the huge, blindingly bright orb we are used to. All of those are true, but Mars is actually much more than that. Images such as this help showcase its true marvels.

The image, taken by the HiRISE camera (belonging to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) at around noon (Martian-time), captures one of the most magnificent dust devil trails ever seen on Mars. These storms tend to be unpredictable and can quickly grow from a contained storm, to almost engulf the entire planet in howling wind. (some of the "dust devils," which are essentially miniature tornadoes, can become up to 8 kilometers in height.)

The storms generally occur when warm air rises and cool air sinks, creating horizontal winds that began spinning until they form a vortex. On Mars, we can clearly see the color of the sand (which is actually dark grey beneath the thin film of iron oxide, due to the presence of basalt). The dust devils are known to disrupt the outermost layer, revealing the colorful landscape pictured here.

Sources and Further Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-122013-dust-devil-trails-on-mars/

Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

A View of Mars 4 Billion Years Ago:

After hearing about the rovers, satellites, and all of the upcoming manned missions to Mars, have you thought to yourself, "gee, I wonder what a day would look like on that planet"? If you are a science enthusiast, chances are, you probably have. I"m afraid that it wouldn"t be too exciting. Unless you were fortunate enough to see one of the planet"s massive dust storms, mostly, a day on Mars would look like a lot of reddish dirt (still though, it"s alien reddish dirt, so that"s kind of neat). However, it would be a completely different story if you saw it 4 billion years ago.

It"s not just everyday people who spend their days imagining life on alien worlds. NASA and the people at Conceptual Image Lab have been thinking a lot about Mars as well. In fact, they thought about it so much that they decided to make a video of Mars from 4 billion years ago. This is, as NASA puts it, “one of the most complex animations [they have] ever produced”. The video (which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKPrwY0Ycno) is designed to help scientists who are working on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, which launches on the 18th of November. It will look at the gases that are currently on the upper atmosphere of Mars to determine the change within its climate.

To read more about what Mars was like, see:
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/a-view-of-mars-4-billion-years-ago/

Image source:
http://ipy.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

Curiosity Confirms First Drilled Mars Sample

References, sources, and further reading can be found here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/curiosity-confirms-first-drilled-mars-sample/

To read the full article, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/curiosity-confirms-first-drilled-mars-sample/