weather – planetaria

Cloudy days on Mars

January 22, 2014 by Paul Scott Anderson

Clouds above Moreux crater in the Protonilus Mensae region. Click for larger version. Credit: ESA / G. Neukum (Freie Universitaet, Berlin, Germany) / Bill Dunford — Clouds above Moreux crater in the Protonilus Mensae region. Ancient streambeds can also be seen. Click for larger version. Credit: ESA / G. Neukum (Freie Universitaet, Berlin, Germany) / Bill Dunford

Mars can seem amazingly Earth-like in many ways, and that includes weather. Bill Dunford recently posted some new images from the Mars Express spacecraft, providing some great views of Martian clouds as they drift over the landscape below. The one above is a beautiful example and all of them can be seen here. While Martian clouds don’t get as big and puffy as they can on Earth, they are still a reminder that Mars is a place, a world with its own unique history while at the same time reminding us of home.

Today’s weather forecast is patchy clouds – on exoplanet Kepler-7b

October 2, 2013 by Paul Scott Anderson

Size comparison between Kepler-7b (left) and Jupiter (right). Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MIT — Size comparison between Kepler-7b (left) and Jupiter (right).
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MIT

Patchy clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. That is the current weather forecast, not for anywhere on Earth, but for a much more distant world in another solar system. For the first time, astronomers have been able to map cloud patterns on such a far-away exoplanet, it was announced on September 30, 2013.

Predicting snowstorms on Mars

May 9, 2013 by Paul Scott Anderson

A view of the north polar ice cap on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech — A view of the north polar ice cap on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech

Mars is famous for its duststorms, which can grow big enough to cover the entire planet. But did you know that it also has snowstorms? These storms can dump a lot of snow on the north polar cap during the bitterly cold winter, and now scientists say they can more accurately forecast them, it was reported yesterday, which would aid any future rover missions in these areas.