Astro-Movie of the Day: Phoenix films Martian ice-clouds

[mckitterick]

Wow, more visuals of water on Mars! Below is a short movie of the Martian sky filled with water-ice clouds similar to Earthly cirrus. In fact, lately the Phoenix lander has observed many such clouds nearby. Is water really so common on Mars? Well, not necessarily; because it's "warm" Martian summer now here near the north pole, lots of water-vapor evaporates to form clouds. Because summer's peak is nearing an end, Phoenix should soon see a decline in cloud-cover.

Still, coool! (Get it? Heh.)

Click the image to see the story.

Best,
Chris

Comments

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

That's absolutely surreal to think that we can now observe (from below, no less) clouds on another planet.

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

Y'know, the Phoenix mission is actually led by the University of Arizona in Tucson. That's only a couple hours away. If they had a public exhibit or whatnot I'd go down this weekend to visit; I don't suppose you'd know anything, would you?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

That's interesting! All I know is what you can read here.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I know! Those are Martian clouds... on Mars!

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

You have to wonder what color the sky is.

:)