6 ms·

with very little atmosphere on mars (<1 kpa), what is causing the 'fogginess' in this picture? (amazing picture btw)

• ceejayoz 14y ago
  Dust in the air, most likely. There was a dust storm in the vicinity prior to landing. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0803-mars-curiosity-20120803,0,1349831.story http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0803-mars-curiosity-...
  • mostly_harmless 14y ago
    and with so little atmosphere, what would cause these dust storms? Would the wind at 1 kpa be able to do it alone?
    • m3koval 14y ago
      Just a guess: The weaker gravity (around 1/3 of Earth's gravity) makes it much easier for wind to pick dust off the ground. Once a dust storm starts, it would also take a lot longer for the cloud of dust to dissipate. Look at the videos of astronauts on the moon from the Apollo landings. Everything they do kicks up a significant amount of dust that takes quite a while to dissipate. Obviously it's not a perfect comparison because the moon has weaker gravity and a different composition.
    • swombat 14y ago
      Apparently the small amount of atmosphere means most of the wind is caused by changes of temperature from sun-heat. The atmosphere heats up very quickly over large areas. I imagine that an area the size of several countries going from -50 to +50 in a couple of hours could raise up some dust, no matter how thin the atmosphere...