Slog
News & ArtsMonday, October 26, 2009
Science / Nerd Recently on Mars
Posted by Grant Brissey on Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 3:23 PM
- NASA, HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona)
- (Click to enlarge image)
This high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light-colored terrain on the Martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet, in other words Martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers.
3
What I learned in reading about this image -- the dust devils are kicking up a fine layer of red dust that covers the entire planet of Mars and revealing the actual color of the planet, which is a dark grey due to its basalt composition.
More on the fine layer of dust that makes us think of Mars as a red planet:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsocie…
More on the fine layer of dust that makes us think of Mars as a red planet:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsocie…
6
I think I know someone who was working on this discovery.
A quick google search confirms this. Yep, I've had sex with the a grad student who helped make this observation.
One might consider that a cause for celebration but, alas, that is not the case.
A quick google search confirms this. Yep, I've had sex with the a grad student who helped make this observation.
One might consider that a cause for celebration but, alas, that is not the case.
8
Actually if you worked at NASA and had access to the original images, it WOULD make for a kickass tattoo.
11
I was watching TeeVee recently when I burst a vessel inside my eye. The blood ran into my vision and looked exactly, I mean exactly, like this!
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