Boffins baffled by the glowing 'plumes' of MARS A group of amateur astronomers has discovered a tricky conundrum for the professionals, documenting atmospheric plumes - or something that looks uncannily like them - above Mars... where they should not occur. The observations, made in March 2012 and written up for Nature here (PDF), found plumes in the Red Planet's atmosphere …
Correct...
The plumes could be some sort of very unusual aurora, 1,000 times brighter than anything seen on Earth, triggered by a very strong magnetic pocket in the planet’s crust that drove solar wind particles out into the atmosphere.
... MARS MAGNETIC ANOMALY #1?
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Mars has almost no global magnetic field, but there are a number of localised magnetic anomalies on the planet, presumably locked in place when the core solidified. ESA spotted aurorae in 2005 over the southern hemisphere and they seem to be associated with known anomalies.
Is there a reason that this is not an impact artefact? IANAA, so the question is in complete ignorance. The Nature article (the free bit, anyway) reads:
"For particles reflecting solar radiation, clouds of CO2-ice or H2O-ice particles with an effective radius of 0.1 micrometres are favoured over dust. Alternatively, the plume could arise from auroral emission, of a brightness more than 1,000 times that of the Earth’s aurora, over a region with a strong magnetic anomaly where aurorae have previously been detected. Importantly, both explanations defy our current understanding of Mars’ upper atmosphere."
"no no no, hold it in, their satellite's coming round again, they're looking for methane! They'll see us!"
"OK. I'm not sure about this... can I let it slip now?"
"no, no, here comes another satellite. You'll have to wait another --"
-- PAAAAARRRRRRP! ---
"Sorry about that, couldn't help it. Blimey, someone open a window!"
[heavy choking coughing; sound of window opening]
[wheezy] "Dear God. What if it forms a plume? I bet they'll spot that from orbit"
So, our initial Mars landers were all solar powered, and nothing happened. Now we've sent a plutonium thermal power source over to that planet, and things are happening now.
Cherenkov glow detectors setting off an ancient weapons system?
Let's just hope the system was inactive and didn't see where the lander originated from, eh?
If you are going to insist on bunging a bloody great picture at the top of each article, at least put the bit of the picture that the article is talking about there! I spent a lot of time wondering where this plume was, and wasn't until I saw the much smaller picture at the bottom of the article that I realised that the bit I was looking at in the main picture was probably the polar (dry) ice cap.
Since when did "amateur scientist" and "alien planet doing something impossible according to current science" result in "sensible hypotheses, if unlikely in the case of the aurora, proposed and professional scientists concur and begin investigation" rather than "THE ALIENS ARE COMING FOR US!!"
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It couldn't be ours.
I drove for almost two hours in the countryside after midnight to watch the launch of Nozomi, magnificent sight, never saw a really big rocket take off before.
Also scary, the sudden illumination and great noise. At such a dark time, easy to think 'this is what a small a-bomb looks and sounds like', many others felt the same for a moment.
The base (seldom used now) is in such green and beautiful countryside, the rocket soon turned into the most magnificent upside-down candle, illuminating the beautiful green coast, hills, and valleys.
I am not an expert, but I doubt there is a more beautiful launch site around.
I cried when all efforts failed (it was years late but still on track for Mars, after many adjustments), but was sent into the void because the international body said there was a chance of impact.
However, while not being A Man from Mars on the Reg., I, too, am truly a Martian.
... ancient underground facility of unknown race found on Mars. Scientists are sure the apparatus, dubbed as "some sort of core", found at the site is likely to enable FTL travel but further study is required, especially since this device seems to be mostly defunct. What boffins already got really excited is the discovery of a new material, as of now, dubbed "element zero" which seems to be a key element of the malfunctioning "core" ...
...you don't know where you are when the SciFi kicks in ;)
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