Space & Astronomy

Mystery surrounds strange 'haze' on Mars

By T.K. Randall
February 16, 2015 ·  31 comments

The mystery plume was first observed over two years ago. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech First discovered by amateur astronomers back in 2012, the anomalous haze was observed twice before disappearing.

Now having analyzed all of the available data about the phenomenon scientists have found themselves stumped.

Some have suggested that it could be a large cloud or a bright aurora, but how such features could have formed in such a thin atmosphere remains something of a mystery.Clouds on Mars typically only form below an altitude of 100km and for the anomaly to have been an aurora it would need to be several times stronger than any that have been observed before.

"We know in this region on Mars, there have been auroras reported before," said Dr Garcia Munoz. "But the intensities we are reporting are much much higher than any auroras seen before on Mars or on Earth. It would be 1,000 times stronger than the strongest aurora."

Scientists are continuing in their efforts to determine what the mysterious haze could be, but as things stand it could be that our understanding of the Martian atmosphere may simply be wrong.

"It raises more questions than answers," said planetary scientist Antonio Garcia Munoz.

Source: BBC News | Comments (31)

Tags: Mars, Haze