Mars’s strangest cloud is even weirder than we thought, scientists say
A new model says water vapor freezes directly into ice at high altitude, and adding that process finally reproduced the cloud’s 1,100-mile tail.
- Researchers publishing in Nature Geoscience on Wednesday explained the mysterious Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud on Mars, identifying a rare process called "homogeneous nucleation" as its primary driver.
- The AMEC stretches over 1,100 miles, appearing daily during Martian spring and summer as winds surge up the 12-mile-high slopes of the Arsia Mons volcano.
- Simulations using European Space Agency Mars Express data show temperatures drop 54 degrees Fahrenheit in 10 minutes, creating humidity levels 100,000 times higher than typical Earth conditions.
- Lead author Jorge Hernández-Bernal stated this marks the first observation of "homogeneous nucleation" in a planetary atmosphere, a process where water vapor freezes without needing dust particles.
- ESA Mars Express Project Scientist Colin Wilson noted the discovery reminds researchers that weather systems behave differently on other worlds, potentially impacting solar system exploration and extraterrestrial life searches.
97 Articles
97 Articles
Mars forms a 1,800-kilometre cloud nearly twice the length of the UK near a giant volcano every morning, and scientists think it may form ice without dust
Every morning during spring and summer in Mars’s southern hemisphere, a long white cloud appears downwind of the giant volcano Arsia Mons.
Mars’s Strangest Cloud Just Got Even Stranger
Modeling suggests Mars’s Arsia Mons cloud may form ice without dust, pointing to a process never before observed in a planetary atmosphere. A white cloud grows downwind of Mars’s Arsia Mons volcano each morning during spring and summer in the planet’s southern hemisphere. Rising beside a volcano 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) tall, this wisp [...]
White plume on Mars: The volcano that froze its own atmosphere
The Mars Express spacecraft of the European Space Agency captured a recurring phenomenon at the base of Arsia Mons: a striking white plume of water ice. Each spring and summer of the southern hemisphere, coinciding with regional dust storms, this cloud forms on the volcano's western slope in the early morning. Driven by the wind, it stretches westward up to 1,800 kilometers in length and 150 kilometers in width, before detaching from its source …
Mars Express has been observing a 2000-kilometre-long phenomenon in the volcano Arsia Mons since 2018. Simulations indicate a process that has only existed in theory so far.
A strange phenomenon occurs on Mars every spring. The European Space Agency has now discovered what is happening on the planet.
Weirdest cloud on Mars formed via ‘exotic physics’
The weirdest cloud on Mars has a funny-sounding name. Scientists call it the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud. Come find out what's weird about it! The post Weirdest cloud on Mars formed via ‘exotic physics’ first appeared on EarthSky.
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