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Mars Space Science

Phoenix Lander Photographs Martian Whirlwinds 92

Posted by kdawson from the taz-lives dept.
Toren Altair recommends a story up on the Space Fellowship site that begins "NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has photographed several dust devils dancing across the arctic plain this week and sensed a dip in air pressure as one passed near the lander. The Surface Stereo Imager ... caught a dust devil in action west of the lander in four frames shot about 50 seconds apart from each other. 'It was a surprise to have a dust devil so visible that it stood [out] with just the normal processing we do,' said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, lead scientist for the stereo camera. 'Once we saw a couple that way, we did some additional processing and found there are dust devils in 12 of the images.'"
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Phoenix Lander Photographs Martian Whirlwinds More

Phoenix Lander Photographs Martian Whirlwinds

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  • Looks a lot like Texas to me... :) (Score:5, Funny)

    by geniusxyz ( 1357027 ) on Saturday September 13, 2008 @10:28PM (#24995293)
    Looks a lot like Texas to me... :)
    • I can assure you, as a student at Texas A&M (I know one of Lemmon's students pretty well), that we are in fact very wet and windblown thanks to Ike. But, we got off class on Friday, so I can't complain too much.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by rlk ( 1089 )

      Crawford, Texas perhaps?

    • Oddly it looks a lot like the pictures I have seen of the surface of Venus.
      Taken by a Russian craft, I believe.

      • Rocks and craters. That's all there is everywhere we look. Rocks and craters on Mercury. Rocks and craters on Mars. Rocks and craters on the Moon. Rocks and craters on Venus. Rocks and craters here. Rocks and craters there. Rocks and craters everywhere. Rocks and craters, rocks and craters, rocks and craters.

        Okay, so there's ice on some of moons of Jupiter and Saturn. But otherwise, rocks and craters. Makes me wonder sometimes why we have a space program. If only there was a scum covered pond,

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by amn108 ( 1231606 )

          If you go out in the ocean, in your immediate vicinity (and our archaic space probes can only do no better) there is just ocean. Granted ocean is a good deal richer ecosystem than the cold space is ever, but for comparision that will do. Now, it does not mean there are no islands around you, but you have to extend the observable space. It's the same with outer space. For the percentage of the space we actually do explore, its just rocks and craters, but most of space is. Somewhere there is lush life, but it

          • Stop calling it So1, goddammit!

            "Sol" is just Latin for "Sun"! So unless you're talking to a (very VERY old) Latin audience...

          • Finding life on an extrasolar planet would be irrelevant - significant, but irrelevant. Scroll through the solar system [archive.org] using your mouse wheel. That'll give you a good idea of how big the solar system is. Now, scroll through that 7200 times, and you'd just be at the closest star. Double that distance if you want to get to the nearest known extrasolar planet.

            Unless we develop some sort of warp drive (which seems to violate the laws of physics as we know them now), we are stuck with either a generation

            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              by amn108 ( 1231606 )

              I will suffice to reply with the quote from "Contact" by Carl Sagan:

              "You wanna hear something really nutty? I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an "airplane," you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it's ridiculous, right? And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon, or atomic energy, or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? Look, all I'm asking, is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by eeyore ( 78059 )
      Whaur are yar hats, cowpokes??

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by lavardo ( 683333 )
      So Mars has "dust devils" and we just have devils?
  • From TFA

    A key factor in the whirlwinds getting stronger is an increase in the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures.

    Shit! now we have to worry about climate change on mars?

  • green text (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dnwq ( 910646 ) on Saturday September 13, 2008 @10:52PM (#24995417)
    So... why's there an <a> tag around everything from "dancing..." to "...images."?

  • I recognize that place, it is just outside of Phoenix.

    • I recognize that place, it is just outside of Phoenix.

      Yes, where else would it be? Inside of Phoenix? It's only 5.5m long and 2.2m tall [redorbit.com], surely that's not tall enough for a dust devil?

      • Above was a pun, on the town of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, which just happened to be the name of the lander. Sorry if you missed that connection. (btw their are lots of dust devils there, and the area outside of the city look quite similar to mars.)

  • Just lovely (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Aerynvala ( 1109505 ) on Saturday September 13, 2008 @10:55PM (#24995427) Homepage
    I'll never get to go to Mars, but at least I get this. I'm loving the pictures that Phoenix is sending back. I enjoy seeing the differences and the similarities between the two planets. Just awe-inspiring.
    • Never? Not sure how old you are, or your health conditions, but I'd guess you could expect at least forty more years.

      Sure, may be wildly optimistic, but, as the elementary school motivational posters say, "Shoot for the Moon- even if you miss, you'll land among the stars!".
      • Even if my health was perfect and I was properly trained, I don't see how a 'manned' mission to Mars will happen anytime soon. Primarily due to the issues of space radiation [space.com]

        • Space being huge and all, and the probability of getting hit by something solid is very small, I can understand that a spacecraft can go far. But I didn't learn much about the effects of radiation on hardware. An organism may suffer in space travel, but how well does hardware bear up after a few years, even with shielding?

          Our earthly magnetic field is quite useful for deflecting some radiation, so would putting an artificial magnetic field around a spacecraft be enough to protect people? It would take a lot

          • I have read something that indicated that electronic equipment can be damaged by radiation. But I have no idea what it was I read, or where I read it. I think I tripped over it on one of my late night link-surfing journeys. *shrugs*

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by statemachine ( 840641 )

            An organism may suffer in space travel, but how well does hardware bear up after a few years, even with shielding?

            To answer your first question:
            Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Cassini....

            Not everything goes perfectly, but sometimes you get very lucky.

        • Even if my health was perfect and I was properly trained, I don't see how a 'manned' mission to Mars will happen anytime soon. Primarily due to the issues of space radiation [space.com]

          I don't think the radiation issue is that bad but I am in favor of it because it is a good reason to send old people.

          • I'm not sure that I'm kidding about that. I've seen quite a few people, including some volunteers of suitable ages, suggest that we send older people to places like Mars with the explicit intent of it being a one-way trip. That being the case, if we're talking about the ever more popular approach of starting by sending robots to dig tunnels to live in and accumulate fuels and oxygen and such, it may turn out that one of the biggest contributions those Mars travelers provide is their bodies. When they die, i
    • I feel the same way. Being on Mars would be unbeleivably awesome. I don't know whether I would take a one way trip if I was offered. The Earth is stunning as well. I am just more used to it.

      The pictures (video?) have me somewhat bemused though. I know the air pressure is lower on Mars, so how fast is the air blowing to cause these Dust Devils? It would seem to me that either the air is moving insanely fast or the dust particle size is tiny. Any ideas/information?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by cjsm ( 804001 )
        I don't know about going to Mars. It would be like going on vacation. Its fun for the first week or so, but after that, I want to go home.

      • It would seem to me that either the air is moving insanely fast or the dust particle size is tiny. Any ideas/information?

        I believe the dust is quite fine.

    • I enjoy seeing the differences and the similarities between the two planets.

      Are you sure your monitor is calibrated correctly? On mine, Mars only appears as one planet.

      - RG>

      • Yeah, my monitor is calibrated right. However, I didn't explicitly say the differences between Earth and Mars. Clarify it enough for you?

  • several dust devils danced across the arctic plain this week and [NASA's martian lander] sensed a dip in air pressure as one passed near the lander.

    -1 redundant. Anyone with any knowledge of meteorology could have told you that the center of hurricanes, tornadoes and of course dust devils have low pressure.

  • I wonder what would happen if one of these little devils ran over the lander!?
  • I, for one, welcome our new dust devil overlords.

  • I've got an old Fujifilm 5000S digital camera which I'll donate to NASA so we can get some decent colour photos.
    I'm sick of this B/W crap.

    • Seconded. The quality of the images we get from NASA and the eSA are rivaled by those of Mathew Brady and his Civil War photographs.

      Expect several lectures on the nature of filters, how digital cameras really work and how photographs aren't 'real science'. But don't expect to be satisfied with any other explanation.

    • There are plenty of color pictures from this mission and other current Mars missions on NASA's site [nasa.gov] and on the Phoenix team's site [arizona.edu] and on many [nivnac.co.uk] amateur [wanderingspace.net] sites [ridingwithrobots.org].

      • Your post somewhat strengthens our point. On the NASA page you linked I had to scroll down a ways to find the first "approximately true-color image". The small handful of others were also labelled "approximately true-color image" as well as "false color image."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CSMatt ( 1175471 )

      You didn't figure it out yet? Color only exists on Earth.

    • decent colour photos.

      If I am not mistaken, they have to take bunches of images in order to capture a single whirlwind. Color images hog more bandwidth and memory. There was some talk of automating the process in the rovers to automatically detect movement and only save and send those frames with activity.

      However, another problem is that most probes use filters to capture color, and filters don't work well with moving objects because the target moves between filters. On some of the Phoenix color images you n

  • Hey, that looks like Taz...

  • Conspiracy (Score:2, Interesting)

    by curmi ( 205804 )

    That's not a dust devil. It's a fast moving Martian.

    Yet another government agency coverup!

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by plasmacutter ( 901737 )

      I'd turn on the microphone and start recording.

      If I hear sputtering and shouting, i'll know where taz went.

  • As it turns out, there are places like home.

  • So far the issues of DRM have mostly been raised by privacy advocates and geeks, with most of the rest simply not caring. DRM, as with copyright in general, is confined to the digital world, and the common attitude is "unless you are a pirate, you shouldn't care, right?".

    If Apple does pursue this through the courts, it can change public opinion. A lot of people would think, "Getting sued for fixing up your own shoes? WTF", and perceive the lawsuit as frivolous, or, best of all, finally seeing that the grave

  • My kids are watching cartoons in the next room, and I just loaded the pictures when a loud 'Meep Meep' came from Roadrunner!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Barryke ( 772876 )

      ..
      yeah, but it gets even more freaky. What are the odds of me reading about ur experience!!!!11

  • Just (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Beautiful

  • The rovers have seen this as well (Score:5, Informative)

    by JoeRobe ( 207552 ) on Sunday September 14, 2008 @03:11AM (#24996655) Homepage

    I think the movies captured by the rovers are much cooler:

    Sol 1120 [nasa.gov]

    Sol 486 [nasa.gov]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Hmmm. 1120 seems to run away after it knows its being photographed. Conspiracy theorists, where are you when we need you?

  • So now even NASA is into rehashing old news. Dust devils were filmed by the Spirit rover in 2005: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050819a.html [nasa.gov]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by trongey ( 21550 )

      Congratulations on being the 500th Slashdotter to miss the point of the article.

      • Well you must have some incredible insight, because the article doesn't say much more than

        "We expected dust devils, but we are not sure how frequently," said Phoenix Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASAâ(TM)s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It could be they are rare and Phoenix got lucky. Weâ(TM)ll keep looking for dust devils at the Phoenix site to see if they are common or not." The dust devils that Phoenix has observed so far are much smaller than dust devils that NASAâ(

  • "I am programmed to answer to the name 'Robbie'."
         

  • Humans have never sent anything to Mars, it's a lie. Look at that photo, it's all black and white, everybody knows Mars is red.

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