Martian Storm Visible in Backyard Scopes

In an unbelievable coincidence a major dust storm has arisen on Mars just as the planet makes its closest approach to Earth. The storm was first detected by Mars observer Joel Warren of Amarillo, Texas who imaged the storm with his 8” SCT. The dust storm was detected Thursday and was no more than a bright dot in Warren’s images. Warren notified Clay Sherrod at Arkansas Sky Observatories (arksky.org) and in images taken by Sherrod Friday night the storm had already grown rapidly. Warren estimated the cloud to be about 700 to 800 miles across as of October 28th and estimates that it is spreading at about 35mph. The storm should be visible in modest backyard telescopes for the next week.

According to Space.com, NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has seen some signs of the dust storm. Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University and a member of the Mars rover science team said that the data returned to Earth Friday by Opportunity showed elevated dust levels at Meridiani Planum.

Dust storms like the current event are fairly common on Mars. Rarely, such dust storms can become large enough to blanket the whole planet as observed by the Mariner 9 spacecraft. Dust storms play an important role in governing the climate of Mars. The global size storms change the planet's total heat balance and affect variations in seasonal frost formation and dissipation. Local and regional storms, especially those in the polar regions, affect the rate at which seasonal frost evolves, and control local and regional weather patterns. Large dust storms are not unique to Mars. Such storms also occur on our own planet. A terrestrial dust storm imaged by SeaWiFS on 26 February 2000 extended about (1100 mi) off the coast of northwest Africa near the equator.

More detail and images of the storm can be seen at Space.com