Land of dust devils
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image to the right demonstrates that the atmosphere and climate of Mars is truly different in different places. The picture, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 22, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample”, it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature.
I post it today almost to illustrate the difference between this location and the spot where the lander Insight landed on Mars. Earlier this week the MRO camera team released a short movie created by images of the lander taken over six years, showing how the dust around it had changed over time. I noted further how those images showed a very small number of dust devil tracks, which explained why no dust devil every crossed over the lander’s solar panels to clean them of dust.
For the picture on the right, however, there are a lot of dust devil tracks, so many near the bottom that they almost completely darken the ground.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location of this picture, in the southern part of Hellas Basin, the death valley of Mars. Insight’s landing location can be seen to the upper right.
Let’s count the differences. Insight landed in the Martian dry tropics, in the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains. Today’s picture is in the cold and icy southern mid-latitudes of Mars, and within the deep basin of Hellas.
Thus, today’s picture is at a much colder location where the atmosphere is much thicker (being considerably lower in elevation) and carrying more ice particles (picked up from the near-surface ice found at these latitudes). The many dust devil tracks indicate that the annual changes of the seasons likely cause many dust devils to occur.
Insight meanwhile sat in a dry high latitude. The atmosphere was thinner, there was no water at all on the ground or in the air, and thus there were fewer dust devils.
I am simplifying a complex situation of course. Further data and research will be required to better understand the reasons for the difference. The difference however tells us again that Mars is complex, and will require a lot of study to understand truly.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image to the right demonstrates that the atmosphere and climate of Mars is truly different in different places. The picture, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 22, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample”, it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature.
I post it today almost to illustrate the difference between this location and the spot where the lander Insight landed on Mars. Earlier this week the MRO camera team released a short movie created by images of the lander taken over six years, showing how the dust around it had changed over time. I noted further how those images showed a very small number of dust devil tracks, which explained why no dust devil every crossed over the lander’s solar panels to clean them of dust.
For the picture on the right, however, there are a lot of dust devil tracks, so many near the bottom that they almost completely darken the ground.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location of this picture, in the southern part of Hellas Basin, the death valley of Mars. Insight’s landing location can be seen to the upper right.
Let’s count the differences. Insight landed in the Martian dry tropics, in the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains. Today’s picture is in the cold and icy southern mid-latitudes of Mars, and within the deep basin of Hellas.
Thus, today’s picture is at a much colder location where the atmosphere is much thicker (being considerably lower in elevation) and carrying more ice particles (picked up from the near-surface ice found at these latitudes). The many dust devil tracks indicate that the annual changes of the seasons likely cause many dust devils to occur.
Insight meanwhile sat in a dry high latitude. The atmosphere was thinner, there was no water at all on the ground or in the air, and thus there were fewer dust devils.
I am simplifying a complex situation of course. Further data and research will be required to better understand the reasons for the difference. The difference however tells us again that Mars is complex, and will require a lot of study to understand truly.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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