Gases/Gaseous objects/Mars

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These are true color images of Mars taken in 1999. Credit: Antonio Cidadao.{{fairuse}}
These are Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars prior to the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft and Lander. Credit: Philip James, NASA.{{fairuse}}

"The [true] color images of Mars [at right] were taken in 1999, across almost 60 million miles (!) by a talented amateur astronomer in Oeiras, Portugal – Antonio Cidadao."[1]

"They were acquired with a modest 10-inch "Schmidt-Cassegrain" reflecting telescope, and a commercially available CCD (charge coupled device) camera. Mr. Cidadao’s total investment in his "Mars imaging system"—commercial telescope and electronic camera, plus computer to process the images, and the appropriate software—was approximately three thousand American dollars."[1]

"In 1997, before the arrival of the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft (the first NASA Lander sent to Mars since Viking), the Hubble Telescope was tasked to acquire a series of "weather forecast Mars images" prior to the landing [at left]."[1]

Ultraviolets[edit | edit source]

The photograph of Mars was taken in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Credit: ESA & MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/ UPM/DASP/IDA.
Artist’s concept: MAVEN’s Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph (IUVS) observes the “Christmas Lights Aurora" on Mars. Credit: Laila Andersson, Arnaud Stiepen and Bruce Jakosky.

The Osiris image of Mars on the top right is in the ultraviolet and "shows the clouds or practically how the surrounding atmosphere covers the desert planet."[2]

"NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has observed two unexpected phenomena in the Martian atmosphere: an unexplained high-altitude dust cloud and aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere."[3]

“If the dust originates from the atmosphere, this suggests we are missing some fundamental process in the Martian atmosphere.”[4]

"MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) observed what scientists have named “Christmas lights.” For five days just before December 25th, MAVEN saw a bright ultraviolet auroral glow spanning Mars’ northern hemisphere. Aurora, known on Earth as northern or southern lights, are caused by energetic particles like electrons crashing down into the atmosphere and causing the gas to glow."[3]

“What’s especially surprising about the aurora we saw is how deep in the atmosphere it occurs — much deeper than at Earth or elsewhere on Mars. The electrons producing it must be really energetic.”[5]

"The source of the energetic particles appears to be the Sun. MAVEN’s Solar Energetic Particle instrument detected a huge surge in energetic electrons at the onset of the aurora. Billions of years ago, Mars lost a global protective magnetic field like Earth has, so solar particles can directly strike the atmosphere. The electrons producing the aurora have about 100 times more energy than you get from a spark of house current, so they can penetrate deeply in the atmosphere."[3]

Visuals[edit | edit source]

A photo of the planet Mars is taken in Straßwalchen (Austria) on September 19, 2003, shortly after its closest approach. Credit: Rochus Hess, http://members.aon.at/astrofotografie.
The tenuous atmosphere of Mars is visible on the horizon in this low-orbit photo. Credit: .
Mars is imaged from Hubble Space Telescope on October 28, 2005, with dust storm visible. Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (Cornell University) and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute).

Mars made its closest approach to Earth and maximum apparent brightness in nearly 60,000 years, 55,758,006 km (0.372719 AU), magnitude −2.88, on 27 August 2003 at 9:51:13 UT.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars, it is often described as the "Red Planet" as the [iron(III) oxide] iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance.[6] ... The red-orange appearance of the Martian surface is caused by iron(III) oxide, more commonly known as hematite, or rust.[7] ... Much of the surface is deeply covered by finely grained iron(III) oxide dust.[8][9]

Infrareds[edit | edit source]

Methane is found in the Martian atmosphere by carefully observing the planet throughout several Mars years with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope, both at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Credit: NASA.

At right is an image generated by detecting methane in the Martian atmosphere by carefully observing the planet throughout several Mars years with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the W.M. Keck telescope, both at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The methane "plumes were seen over areas that show evidence of ancient ground ice or flowing water. Plumes appeared over the Martian northern hemisphere regions such as east of Arabia Terra, the Nili Fossae region, and the south-east quadrant of Syrtis Major, an ancient volcano about 745 miles across."[10]

Atmospheres[edit | edit source]

This is a color image made from the first post-sunset sequence of calibrated color images, with the color balance set to approximate what the sunset color would have looked like to the human eye. Credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell.

"A color image was made [at lower right] from the first post-sunset sequence of calibrated color images, with the color balance set to approximate what the sunset color would have looked like to the human eye. The color seen in this first post-sunset image was then used to colorize each image in the sequence. Approximately one-minute gaps between consecutive color images meant the Sun's position changed within each color set, so the images had to be manually shifted to compensate for this motion. In this fashion, the position and brightness of the Sun are taken from each individual image, but the color is taken from a single set of images. The images were then combined into a movie where one color set fades gracefully into the next. Analysis of the five color sets shows that there were only small color variations during the sunset, so most of the real variations are captured in the movie."[11]

"The rapid dimming of the Sun near the horizon is due to the dust in the sky. There is nearly twice as much dust as there was when the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, which landed on Mars in 1997, imaged the sunset. This causes the Sun to be many times fainter. The sky above the Sun has the same blue tint observed by Pathfinder and also by Viking, which landed on Mars in 1976. This is because dust in the martian atmosphere scatters blue light forward toward the observer much more efficiently than it scatters red light forward. Therefore, a "halo" of blueish sky color is always observed close to the Sun. We're only seeing half of this halo in the movie, because the other half is below the horizon."[11]

Dust devils[edit | edit source]

Dust devil on Mars Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). Credit: Malin Space Science Systems, MGS, JPL, NASA.{{free media}}
Dust devils cause twisting dark trails on the Martian surface. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.{{free media}}
Serpent Dust Devil of Mars (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.{{free media}}
A dust devil on hilly terrain in the Amazonis quadrangle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.{{free media}}
Dust devils in Valles Marineris (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.{{free media}}
Dust devil on Mars is photographed by the Mars rover Spirit. The counter in the bottom-left corner indicates time in seconds after the first photo was taken in the sequence. At the final frames, a trail is visible on the Martian surface. Three other dust devils also appear in the background. Credit: NASA.{{free media}}
The Serpent Dust Devil of Mars - video (01:16). Credit: JPL.{{free media}}

"This long-distance reconnaissance detected a small dust storm less than a month before the Pathfinder arrival, which (with its potentially high winds) could have posed a serious threat to the Pathfinder entry and landing."[1]

"If dust diffuses to the landing site, the sky could turn out to be pink like that seen by Viking... otherwise [based on the Hubble images - above], Pathfinder will likely show blue sky with bright clouds."[12]

Dust devils also occur on Mars (see dust devil tracks) and were first photographed by the Viking orbiters in the 1970s. In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder lander detected a dust devil passing over it.[13][14] In the image shown here, photographed by the Mars Global Surveyor, the long dark streak is formed by a moving swirling column of Martian atmosphere. The dust devil itself (the black spot) is climbing the crater wall. The streaks on the right are sand dunes on the crater floor.

Martian dust devils can be up to fifty times as wide and ten times as high as terrestrial dust devils, and large ones may pose a threat to terrestrial technology sent to Mars.[15] On 7 November 2016, five such dust devils ranging in heights of 0.5 to 1.9 km were imaged in a single observation by Mars Orbiter Mission in martian southern hemisphere.[16]

Mission members monitoring the Spirit rover on Mars reported on March 12, 2005, that a lucky encounter with a dust devil had cleaned the solar panels of that robot. Power levels dramatically increased and daily science work was anticipated to be expanded.[17] A similar phenomenon (solar panels mysteriously cleaned of accumulated dust) had previously been observed with the Opportunity rover]], and dust devils had also been suspected as the cause.[18]

Gaseous objects[edit | edit source]

"Four hydrogen (H2) lines have been detected in a spectrum of Mars observed with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. ... The line intensities correspond to [an] H2 abundance ... above 140 kilometers on Mars. ... Analysis of [deuterium] fractionation among a few reservoirs of ice, water vapor, and molecular hydrogen on Mars implies that a global ocean more than 30 meters deep was lost since the end of hydrodynamic escape. Only 4% of the initially accreted water remained on the planet at the end of hydrodynamic escape, and initially Mars could have had even more water (as a proportion of mass) than Earth."[19]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Richard C. Hoagland (2002). Revealing Mars' True Colors ... of NASA. TheEnterpriseMission Website. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/marte/esp_marte_56.htm. Retrieved 2014-02-25. 
  2. Alvin Writer (2 April 2007). "Blue Mars". Magbook. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 NASA GSFC (19 March 2015). Mysterious Martian dust cloud and aurora detected by NASA spacecraft. Greenbelt, Maryland USA: NASA. http://astronomynow.com/2015/03/19/mysterious-martian-dust-cloud-and-aurora-detected-by-nasa-spacecraft/. Retrieved 2015-05-17. 
  4. Laila Andersson (19 March 2015). Mysterious Martian dust cloud and aurora detected by NASA spacecraft. Greenbelt, Maryland USA: NASA. http://astronomynow.com/2015/03/19/mysterious-martian-dust-cloud-and-aurora-detected-by-nasa-spacecraft/. Retrieved 2015-05-17. 
  5. Arnaud Stiepen (19 March 2015). Mysterious Martian dust cloud and aurora detected by NASA spacecraft. Greenbelt, Maryland USA: NASA. http://astronomynow.com/2015/03/19/mysterious-martian-dust-cloud-and-aurora-detected-by-nasa-spacecraft/. Retrieved 2015-05-17. 
  6. The Lure of Hematite. NASA. March 28, 2001. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast28mar_1.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-24. 
  7. Mark Peplow. How Mars got its rust. MacMillan Publishers Ltd.. http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news-print.cfm?art=953. Retrieved 2007-03-10. 
  8. Philip R. Christensen, et al. (June 27, 2003). "Morphology and Composition of the Surface of Mars: Mars Odyssey THEMIS Results". Science 300 (5628): 2056–61. doi:10.1126/science.1080885. PMID 12791998. 
  9. Matthew P. Golombek (June 27, 2003). "The Surface of Mars: Not Just Dust and Rocks". Science 300 (5628): 2043–2044. doi:10.1126/science.1082927. PMID 12829771. 
  10. Phil Davis (June 24, 2011). Methane on Mars. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Planets&IM_ID=7744. Retrieved 2012-07-20. 
  11. 11.0 11.1 Sue Lavoie (February 26, 2004). PIA05343: The Sun Sets on Mars. Pasadena, California USA: NASA/JPL. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05343. Retrieved 2013-04-01. 
  12. Philip James (2002). Revealing Mars' True Colors ... of NASA. TheEnterpriseMission Website. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/marte/esp_marte_56.htm. Retrieved 2014-02-25. 
  13. Metzger, S. M. "Dust Devil Vortices at the Ares Vallis MPF Landing Site" (PDF). Mars Exploration Program. JPL. Retrieved August 9, 2010. [dead link]
  14. "Martian Dust Devils Caught". Climate Research USA. Ruhr-Universität Bochum. March 21, 2000. Archived from the original on 2006-10-30. Retrieved August 9, 2010.
  15. Smith, Peter; Renno, Nilton (6 June 2001). "Studying Earth Dust Devils For Possible Mars Mission". UniSci News. Retrieved December 1, 2006.
  16. Singh, Ramdayal; Arya, A.S. (29 January 2019). "Martian Dust Devils Observed by Mars Colour Camera Onboard Mars Orbiter Mission" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  17. David, Leonard (12 March 2005). "Spirit Gets A Dust Devil Once-Over". Space.com. Retrieved December 1, 2006.
  18. "Did You Know?". Mars Exploration Rovers. Cornell University. Retrieved December 1, 2006.
  19. Vladimir A. Krasnopolsky, Paul D. Feldman (November). "Detection of Molecular Hydrogen in the Atmosphere of Mars". Science 294 (5548): 1914-7. doi:10.1126/science.1065569. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5548/1914.short. Retrieved 2013-10-05. 

External links[edit | edit source]