What do you think the unusual plumes on Mars are?

[deb]

Volcano is first choice, like Jupiter's moon Io. But that would have been seen in gory detail by the fleet of satellites examining Mars. They can see the rovers on the ground, they wouldn't miss an active volcano.

Meteor strike is the second choice, but again anything big enough to put a plume 200km high (that's the altitude where we orbit the space station), would create a crater that couldn't be missed by the mars satellite fleet. They're noticing landslides/mudslides a few hundred meters long, they wouldn't miss a crater that created a 200km plume.

Indeed, the plume itself should be pretty obvious to the mars satellite fleet.

My top theory is an imaging artifact. The reports that it has been seen by multiple observers is an obvious challenge to that theory. However if there is a subtle pattern in the image, that is getting distorted and amplified by the image processing, it is possible that everyone using the same image processing sequence will get the same or similar distortion. Look carefully at the opposite side of Mars in the video image. There's a ring just above the surface of half the planet. Nobody is proposing that is real, it is obviously an image processing artifact. I think the "plume" is the inverse of the ring on the opposite side, only visible where a slightly brighter area of Mars gets displaced (like the ring), and amplified by the image processing software.

[timo3gray@yahoo.ca]

My first thought was prolonged thermal venting, not unlike a volcanoe and it's associated network of magma and channels, but likely because mars is nothing like earth green and vibrant state of regeneration and life cycle, it is likely thermal/gas in nature and part of its atmospheric/environmental reconstitution. Stirring up dust and surface matter and/or some kind of charged or combusting particles occurring during periodic continuous "burst" and "currents" of the gases and contents being released from pressured chambers

Would there be clathrates on Mars, as there are below the sea on earth? I don't know what atmospheric conditions wouold allow the suspension of gas for that length of time.

[stowaway]

Pardon our dust. It's just the turbinium reactor being activated by Douglas Quaid. Just the beginning of the terraforming project. Mars rocks!

[bystander]

And Now for Something Completely Different

[tenntex54]

At those altitudes it is more likely to be an aurora-like event that dust or ice. Especially since the plumes are over an area that is known to have a moderate magnetic field. It would be interesting to find out if there is any correlation to the timing of the plumes and solar activity and/or aurora activity here on Earth.

[RAP]

Debris kicked up by meteorite hit - suspended because of the low gravitational force. Does the plumb change shape with time and in what manner?

[aestival]

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
MARS
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE

[echoes of nite]

calmdown wrote: <<Calm down. Its just a new Walmart being built. sheesh.>>
There goes the neighborhood!

It could be that Mars is preggers.

Or Marvin is launching his promised attack bc Earth obstructs his view.

[Texas Alchemist]

Those images are a several years old. Where did the spacecraft they were launching end up? Did it land on Earth? Is it in orbit around Earth? Did it land on one of there moons? ("That's one small step for a Martian and a giant leap for Martiankind.") A universe of possibilities.

[guest1]

based on what is shown with the plumes being near the ice cap i would assume this is part of the summer "melt" where frozen CO2 sublimates, creating pressure spots under the surface of CO2 gas which then release into these spectacular formations. if this doesnt match with melting periods then i have no clue.

[Louie Louie]

The plume isn't coming up from the ground, it's coming down from above. Watch your assumptions.

[snowrob]

unimpeded dust devil

[skyline]

Electromagnetic discharge.

[Isabelle]

Isn't it obvious that it is Marvin the Martian testing nuclear weapons? Honestly people, Ockham's Razor. Sheesh...

[Alurijon]

It may be a meteorite impact.

Why the plume lasted so long could be due to the particle size of the ejected dust (very small, therefore with a very slow settling velocity)

[Duffy]

There are wars ongoing on Mars.

[Larry Reese]

Hello all,

I suspect one of two answers (though it will likely turn out to be something completely different):

1. volcanism of some sort - problems with this though are that Mars, for the most part, if memory serves, is considered tectonically and volcanically dead, so what would drive this action? On the point about observation by satellites, I'm not sure how quickly the surface is reimaged. Unless an orbiter was in just the right location, it could miss these events and we would need a year or two before the area was reimaged. Another problem, I believe, is the backlog of images that already exists. Though this could ameliorated somewhat by high priority tasking.

2. meteorite impact plume - not knowledgeable enough to do all the mathematical leg work on the interaction between impact plume mechanics and Mar's super thin atmosphere. The winds at that altitude impact that, with questions such as if it was a significant enough plume to be spotted from Earth shouldn't it expand further, though the greatly thinned atmosphere might impact this). With no known initial impact size, etc..., to fill in some of the blanks, there is not much to go on from a mathematical perspective.

Would be good to know too if there was gradual dissipation of the cloud or just suddenly it was gone. I have not heard or seen any discussion on this aspect, and if memory serves, there was a similar plume spotted several years ago along the north eastern limb of Mars as well, so it would appear to a recurring phenomena.

Very interested in following the research on this one.

Best regards all,

LR

[LUKE the genius]

The plume on Mars is just Mars' version of "OLD FAITHFUL". It is called, " REALLY OLD FAITHFUL" I thought everybody knew this.

[CarolDel]

Are there seismographs on any of the Mars landers that would record a meteor impact?

[Larry Reese]

Just checked on the orbital period of the MRO (just for fun), I believe it is 112 minutes and from the latest orbital data it would seem to have been in the area to "see" anything on the ground producing these plumes at some point in time during the days the event was visible. Not known the ground coverage of the instrumentation on each pass though it is still possible that any focus/event could have been missed by imaging or still be sitting in the image queue awaiting review.

Anyone have better information?

Thanks,

LR

[Ron-Astro Pharmacist]

No doubt that a refurbished Evel Knievel got a hold of Spirit (what a coincidence), found the best place to beef it up to a 300 HP rover and is now haulin' ass to jump Valles Marineris in an attempt to make his most unlikely return very memorable.

Evel.jpg (11.35 KiB) Viewed 78510 times

Don't count out the Legend!

[MarkBour]

The images are tantalizing, but not nearly as clear and with enough resolution as one would like. Is it significant that there is also a gray region all along that portion of Mars at the same time as the plume is seen at the terminus? Is that a cloud that came from the plumes and then extended very far across the top (in this image) of the visible face of Mars?

[A. Einstein]

I think it is a little black hole between Earth and Mars causing gravitational lensing. Proof of this will be the absence of detection by any of spacecraft in orbit.

[chocolatelover3]

I think it is a impact of a meteor or comet

[Guest]

Must be the Cabal!