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Telescopes spot big dust storm on Mars
Cloud appears on Red Planet’s disk just as close encounter peaks
 P. Clay Sherrod / Arkansas Sky Observatories The left image shows Mars on the night of Oct. 26-27, and the right image was taken the next night. In the course of a day, the relatively bright yellow signature of a dust storm grew noticeably between surface features known as Margaritifer Sinus and Sinus Meridiani. The storm's width was estimated at 700 to 800 miles. |
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A major dust storm has just broken out on Mars, and the event will be visible this weekend with good-sized backyard telescopes.
The timing is incredible. Amateur skywatchers around the world are planning to gaze at Mars on Saturday night because it will be closer to Earth than at any time until the year 2018.
The dust storm was no more than a small bright dot Thursday, yet it was large and obvious Friday, as seen in images taken by Clay Sherrod at the Arkansas Sky Observatories.
NASA took note and is monitoring signals from its Mars rovers, one of which has detected signs of the storm, Space.com has learned.
The storm "will be quite obvious and plainly visible in even small telescopes from the Western Hemisphere for about the next week," Sherrod said in an e-mail to colleagues that was forwarded to Space.com.
The storm has seven appendages that stretch in all directions, Sherrod said. The overall cloud is about 700 to 800 miles across, according to estimates by longtime Mars-watcher Joel Warren, Sherrod said.
Warren, of Amarillo, Texas, told Space.com that he took the first image of the storm rotating into view early Friday using his 8-inch telescope. He notified Sherrod and others of its existence.
The dusty cloud is spreading at a speed of about 35 mph and may become larger by the weekend.
Dusty planet
Dust storms are fairly common on Mars. Small storms have been known to swell and engulf the entire planet, as occurred in 2001.
In 2003, Mars made the closest pass to Earth in 60,000 years. This weekend, it won't be quite that close, but still better than most of the other close approaches it makes every 26 months.
Earth is closer to the sun, so it effectively passes Mars every 26 months as both worlds orbit the central star.
Mars will be 43,137,071 miles (69,422,386 kilometers) from Earth at around 11:25 p.m. ET Saturday. In truth, the view will be basically the same as the night before and the night after. But the event is being marked by star parties in many communities.
Sherrod said the dust storm is not currently visible during nighttime hours from Europe or Australia.
Mars is a fuzzy orange point of light in the late-evening sky now, in the east. Before dawn, it looms in the western sky. Small telescopes will reveal Mars as a disk, rather than a point of light. Good-sized backyard telescopes, generally about 3 inches (75mm) or larger, show details of the planet's surface.
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