AstroAlert: New Dust Activity on Mars

[Ulrich Rieth]

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This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Planetary Activity
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Veteran Mars observer Donald C. Parker reports that significant changes
have taken place on Mars in the last 48 hours. "I'd call it a dust cloud,
not a dust storm," he advises. "Let's hope it stays put!"

Beginning on July 1st, Parker noticed a marked weakening, or lightening, of
the conspicuous dark feature Syrtis Major in images taken with his 16-inch
Newtonian reflector in Coral Gables, Florida. Yet just the previous morning
another Mars expert, Jeffrey D. Beish, had described Syrtis Major as dark
and normal when viewed visually with his own 16-inch at Lake Placid,
Florida. Parker also noticed some bright ochre spots rimming the Hellas
basin and partially obscuring the Iapygia region (between Hellas and Syrtis
Major). Similar spots around Hellas had been imaged by Texas amateur Ed
Grafton on June 28th.

By early this morning, July 2nd, it was clear that something major was
taking place. Parker noted that the isolated clouds he'd seen over Iapygia
the night before had coalesced and expanded to form one cloud, bright when
viewed in red light. The coalescing cloud is on the side of the planet that
can currently be studied most easily from the Americas. It is centered at
Martian latitude 25 degrees south, longitude 294 degrees west.

"It's scary. This is almost a repeat of what happened in 2001," says
Parker. "But with Mars, who knows? Maybe we'll get lucky and it will just
go away. We should know in a day or two."

Parker credits Beish, former Mars recorder for the Association of Lunar and
Planetary Observers, with having predicted this localized event almost to
the day. In Beish's view the dust cloud is unlikely to become widespread.
Rather, it may be the precursor of a global dust storm that Beish feels is
a distinct possibility for September.

SKY & TELESCOPE's guide to this year's Mars apparition appeared in our June
2003 issue. An abridged version is on our Web site:

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ob ... _985_1.asp

To find out which side of Mars is visible at any particular date and time,
see our handy Mars Profiler JavaScript utility:

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ob ... _997_1.asp

Finally, the following organizations invite reports from Mars observers:

Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~rhill/alpo/mars.html

British Astronomical Association
http://www.britastro.org/mars/

International MarsWatch
http://elvis.rowan.edu/marswatch/

Wishing you clear and steady skies!

Roger W. Sinnott
Senior Editor
SKY & TELESCOPE

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[Daniel Ricke/Hannover]

Moin!!!

Mit dem Mars kenne ich mich ja nun überhaupt nicht aus, aber was ist denn an einer Staubwolke (dust cloud) so furchterregend (scary), wie es ja im Text steht?!?

Bitte klärt mich mal auf.

Viele Grüße

Daniel

[Ulrich Rieth]

Hallo Daniel!

Ein "kleiner" Staubsturm auf dem Mars in Zeiten seiner größten Sonnennähe, ist fast immer der Auslöser für DEN globalen Staubsturm.
Und wenn der erstmal dran ist, kannst Du über Monate hinweg nichts mehr auf Mars beobachten, weil einfach alles hinter diesen roten Staubschichten verborgen bleibt.
Hier mal ein paar Links aus der letzten Opposition.

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2001 ... ll_jpg.jpg
http://science.msfc.nasa.gov/headlines/ ... 6jul_1.htm
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/2001/31/

Gruß

Ulrich

[Daniel Ricke/Hannover]

...verstehen, dass Otto-Normal-Hobbyastronom nicht gerade sehr erfreut darüber ist, wenn denn der Mars schonmal der Erde so nah kommt, wie es von uns niemand mehr wieder erleben wird und sich Mars-Murphy prompt in seinen staubigen Mantel hüllt!

Verständnisvolle Grüße

Daniel

[Ulrich Rieth]

Jetzt auch als Thema auf SW.com *o.T.*