Space
Odd, colorful clouds on Mars spotted by NASA’s Curiosity rover
(Planet Today) Wispy, colorful clouds could be seen hovering in the Martian sky in images released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on May 28. The images were taken by NASA’s curiosity rover from near the Martian equator and showed what are apparently seasonal features on Mars.
(Article by Virgilio Marin republished from NaturalNews.com)
Clouds are typically found floating at the planet’s equator in the coldest time of the year when the Red Planet is farthest from the sun. But one Martian year ago (two Earth years), scientists noticed clouds forming over Curiosity earlier than they expected. So NASA instructed the rover this year to watch for “early” clouds.
Clouds did appear starting in late January. They were spread out in rippled and sometimes colorful patterns in the dry, thin atmosphere of Mars.
SWEET MOTHER OF PEARL LOOK AT THESE MARTIAN CLOUDS. No, seriously. These iridescent wisps are called “mother of pearl” clouds. The shimmery pastels result when the particles in the cloud are all nearly identical in size. https://t.co/Gtgz9Iu822 (3/4) pic.twitter.com/Op73fHoTwH
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) May 28, 2021
“I always marvel at the colors that show up – reds and greens and blues and purples,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist from the Space Science Institute in Colorado. “It’s really cool to see something shining with lots of color on Mars.”
Martian clouds are said to be at their prettiest just after sunset, when the last light makes the ice crystals glow against the darkening sky. This is why scientists call these twilight clouds “noctilucent,” or night-shining.
One of the noctilucent clouds in the images appears iridescent like mother-of-pearl. Lemon said that Martian clouds look this way when cloud particles are very similar sizes. This happens when clouds have just formed and have grown at the same speed.
Strangely, the clouds in the images appeared higher in the atmosphere than what scientists had seen before. NASA said that Martian clouds usually hover 37 miles above the surface and are made of water ice. But the clouds in images floated at an altitude higher than that, though NASA did not specify the exact altitude. This suggested that they were likely made of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) since it is colder higher up in the atmosphere.
NASA said it would know for sure which of the images showed water-ice clouds and which showed dry-ice ones once it collected enough data. In the meantime, the new images could help scientists understand how clouds form on Mars, which is a big mystery since the Red Planet has a very thin atmosphere.
Clouds on Mars form from icy dust from meteors
A 2019 study published in the journal Nature Geoscience found that meteors might play a big role in Martian cloud formation. Researchers explained that the wispy clouds in Mars’ middle atmosphere – which starts around 18 miles above the surface – formed largely from “meteoric smoke,” or icy dust created by space debris slamming into the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
“We’re used to thinking of Earth, Mars and other bodies as these really self-contained planets that determine their own climates. But climate isn’t independent of the surrounding solar system,” said NASA’s Victoria Hartwick, who started the study as a doctoral student at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Clouds need “seeds” to form, or particles around which water molecules could condense. On Earth, s particles include grains of sea salt or dust that get carried upward by the wind. As water molecules condense around these particles, cloud formations grow larger and heavier.
But it was unclear how that applies to clouds in the middle atmosphere of Mars since this region lacks those particles. Small meteors, however, burn up and shed fine dust when they slam into the planet’s atmosphere. This fine dust could serve as the needed seeds for clouds to form.
Indeed, when the researchers ran computer simulations to test this hypothesis, their models showed that clouds did not form in the middle atmosphere of Mars without meteoric dust. Conversely, clouds condensed when meteoric dust was included in the simulations.
In sum, the study showed that clouds on Mars form largely from icy dust left behind by small meteors burning up in the planet’s atmosphere.
According to NASA, a rogue, hyper-speed object, which is over
27,306 times the size of Earth, is hurtling so fast through our galaxy
that it might break free of the Milky Way.
Scientists say they have determined that the mysterious object was
cruising at a breakneck one million miles per hour when they spotted it
more than 400 light years from Earth. One light-year is equal to six
trillion miles.
Could this latest find be connected to the fake alien invasion that has long been in the pipeline?
The Mail Online reorts: While experts have not determined what the newfound celestial body is, they speculated it is a ‘brown dwarf,’ a star which is larger than a planet but lacks the mass to sustain long-term nuclear fusion in its core like Earth’s sun.
If the object confirmed as a brown dwarf, it would be first-ever to
be documented in a chaotic, hyper-speed orbit capable of breaking free
from our home galaxy.
A coalition of citizen-scientists with NASA’s ‘Backyard Worlds: Planet 9’ projectwere the first to spot the celestial body, the US space agency confirmed this week.
‘I can’t describe the level of excitement,’ German citizen-scientist Martin Kabatnik, a long-time member of NASA’s Backyard Worlds program, said in statement.
‘When I first saw how fast it was moving,’ the Nuremberg-based
researcher confessed, ‘I was convinced it must have been reported
already.’
Backyard Worlds citizen-scientists Martin Kabatnik, Thomas P. Bickle
and Dan Caselden were the first to spot this million mph object a few
years ago, earning the hyper-speed object the catalogued name CWISE
J124909.08+362116.0.
According to astronomer Dr Kyle Kremer,
who has collaborated with them on better understanding the object,
several astrophysics theories could explain how the object, CWISE J1249
for short, could have gotten to its incredible speed.
In one theory, CWISE J1249 rocketed out of a two star or binary star
system after its ‘white dwarf’ sister star died off — collapsing in an
explosive runaway nuclear fusion reaction called a supernova.
Another viable theory has it that CWISE J1249 originated inside a
tight cluster of starts called a ‘globular cluster’ where it was flung
free via the pull of a black hole.
‘When a star encounters a black hole binary,’ Dr Kremer said in a
NASA statement on the discovery, ‘the complex dynamics of this
three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular
cluster.’
Sławosz Uznański will be the second Pole in space and the first to fly to the International Space Station (ISS).
Uznański revealed that his mission to the ISS is planned for 2025 and will last about two weeks. He will launch from Cape Canaveral on a rocket provided by SpaceX. This journey not only represents a significant milestone for Uznański but also for Polish space exploration.
Last year, Uznański was officially selected for this mission, after which he commenced his training at the European Space Agency’s facility in Cologne, Germany. Initially planned for 2024, the mission faced delays, but new details have recently emerged on Uznański’s social media profiles.
During his two-week stay on the ISS, he will focus on Polish scientific projects and technology tests, including artificial intelligence applications in space and studies on the effects of microgravity on the human immune system.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Polish Space Agency (POLSA) received numerous project proposals for Uznański’s mission. Due to limited space, only seven were selected, highlighting the extensive interest and potential impact of this mission.
Uznański will travel to the ISS in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, a vehicle regularly used by NASA for transporting astronauts. The Crew Dragon will be mounted atop a Falcon 9 rocket, with the launch also set to take place at Cape Canaveral. While the exact launch date is yet to be confirmed, preparations are in full swing.
In a move to further his training, Uznański has relocated to Houston, Texas. Starting Monday, he will begin a new training phase at Axiom Space, a partner in the mission, followed by sessions at NASA and SpaceX facilities. This mission not only propels Uznański into space but also significantly advances Poland’s stature in the global aerospace sector.
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