New Auroras And Dust Clouds of Mars Puzzle Scientists

[Fanghawk]

New Auroras And Dust Clouds of Mars Puzzle Scientists

But it's the non-shiny displays MAVEN's picking up that will be more significant to scientists. For example: Not only has MAVEN picked up a huge dust cloud orbiting the planet, it's far higher than NASA would have predicted - sitting 93 to 190 miles above the planet. Scientists think the dust may have come from Martian moons, solar wind, or even comet debris, but have no idea what actually brought it into orbit like that. We don't even know if it's a long-term phenomenon, just that it's been floating there for as long as MAVEN was watching.

MAVEN still has eight months left in its mission, so hopefully we'll learn a lot more about the red planet before it moves on.

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Source: <a href=http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/03/18/maven-spotted-a-strange-and-unexpected-aurora-around-mars/?tid=hpModule_9d3add6c-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e>Washington Post

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[the December King]

You know what's really cool about that second picture? If I didn't know better, I'd have said that was alien tech lighting the night sky, much like our planet at night...

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

The Gods of Mars are angered by the revelation that Mars One is a scam. They were looking forward to all those new worshipers (or sacrifices depending on where they stand in the pantheon).

 

[Li Mu]

The Gods of Mars are angered by the revelation that Mars One is a scam. They were looking forward to all those new worshipers (or sacrifices depending on where they stand in the pantheon).

I was going to say that it's some kind of martian cloaking technology to hide their bases, but I like your theory more.

 

[TheMann]

I'm going to be that guy and point out that Mars is not our closest planetary neighbor, Venus is. However, who wants to go to Venus? Nobody, that's who. Anyway I'm intrigued by this data, must know more.