Mars Plume

[Moonhawk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-3149...

Not saying it's aliens but:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlpl-RzsCck&t=4...

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said

[Eric Mc]

The chances of using that line in a thread about Mars - 100%

[Moonhawk]

Eric Mc said:

The chances of using that line in a thread about Mars - 100%

Yeh well, somehow "a Mars a day helps you work rest and play" just doesn't have the same impact

[hidetheelephants]

Dust cloud from a particularly large meteor strike or some kind of eruption event? Cool stuff either way, I wonder if Curiosity can detect seismic events?

[Eric Mc]

Clouds on Mars are quite common - whether it is water vapour, CO2 or dust.

[Moonhawk]

Eric Mc said:

Clouds on Mars are quite common - whether it is water vapour, CO2 or dust.

Not like that though - its only been seen twice and it has the scientists stumped.

Seems to have gone up to around 200km above the Martian surface, twice the height of any clouds seen previously on Mars.

To put that into context - the highest altitude noctilucent clouds seen on Earth occur at around 85km.

Edited by Moonhawk on Tuesday 17th February 19:38

[jmorgan]

Not much of an atmosphere on Mars either.

[citizensm1th]

that's got to have scared the pants off of those 100 people selected to train for that one way mars mission

do you think its the Martians telling us to stay away lol

[Eric Mc]

They're obviously sending smoke signals.

[citizensm1th]

Eric Mc said:

They're obviously sending smoke signals.

I wonder if they are monty python fans?

[jmorgan]

citizensm1th said:

that's got to have scared the pants off of those 100 people selected to train for that one way mars mission

Judging from some of the comments from them, the Martians would be too late.

[tonyvid]

Moonhawk said:

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said

my favourite way of using up some departure gate time.

[rhinochopig]

Ogilvy assured me we were in no danger.

[Nom de ploom]

is it some sort of aurora?

I'm assuming mars has a magnetic field but without an atmosphere how would an aurora form...?

[rhinochopig]

tonyvid said:

Moonhawk said:

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said

my favourite way of using up some departure gate time.

Can't imagine digging a tunnel to re-start society goes down all that well with Homeland Security.

[scorp]

Nom de ploom said:

is it some sort of aurora?

I'm assuming mars has a magnetic field but without an atmosphere how would an aurora form...?

Mars has an atmosphere, just not as deep and as dense as Earths.

Could be a low gravity volcano like the ones seen on Io ? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanology_of_Io )

Edited by scorp on Wednesday 18th February 10:35

[jmorgan]

scorp said:

Mars has an atmosphere, just not as deep and as dense as Earths.

Could be a low gravity volcano like the ones seen on Io ? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanology_of_Io )

Edited by scorp on Wednesday 18th February 10:35

Thought Mars was inactive? That is its core has cooled too much, so much so Olympus Mons is its size because the crust is so thick it can support its weight, would not survive on Earth that size.

[jmorgan]

Thinking about it, there are holes in the Martian surface. Maybe their collapse triggers this event?

[scorp]

jmorgan said:

Thought Mars was inactive? That is its core has cooled too much, so much so Olympus Mons is its size because the crust is so thick it can support its weight, would not survive on Earth that size.

I was wondering that earlier. I'd imagine an asteroid would have an obvious heat flash so probably not that?

Could a storm of some kind throw up dust that high ?

[Moonhawk]

scorp said:

Could be a low gravity volcano like the ones seen on Io ? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanology_of_Io )

If it were due to a volcanic eruption - it's likely that both the MRO and Mars Express would have seen some evidence of surface changes by now (both were in orbit at the time these plumes were observed).