Science & Tech

The cause of huge dust storms on Mars has been a mystery for years - until now

The cause of huge dust storms on Mars has been a mystery for years - until now
Mysterious polygons are found on Mars
Bright Side - Vertical / VideoElephant

Mars is known for its massive dust storms that can last for months and cover the entire planet - but why do they happen and why are they so severe?

Scientists might have discovered the reason behind these monstrous storms which may be linked to how the planet absorbs energy from the Sun.

The planets and moons in our solar system all absorb energy from the sun, and they also emit energy back into space. The balance between incoming solar radiation reaching Earth and the outgoing thermal radiation back into space is called the radiative energy budget (REB), or Earth’s energy budget.

Scientists know a lot about how this process works on Earth, which is now considered unbalanced because of a very worrying issue called climate change (which, strangely, still has a lot of deniers). It means more energy is coming into the planet than leaving, causing Earth to steadily heat up.

Experts are still learning about Mars’ REB, especially whether it is balanced and this has affected how much we understand about the Red Planet’s climate. One thing we do know thanks to Curiosity and other Mars rovers is that there are dust storms that engulf the whole planet, which is not an ideal scenario if humans ever move to the planet.

Earth and Mars size comparisonEarth and Mars have some similaritiesWiki commons

An estimate of the REB of Mars would help experts understand the climate over the entire planet. University of Houston doctoral student Larry Guan, and Liming Li, a professor of physics at the same university worked with researchers to use data about the infrared and visible radiation emitted and reflected from the surface of Mars over five Martian years (or just under 10 Earth years).

When its spring and summer in the Martian northern hemisphere, the areas around the northern latitudes absorb more energy than it emits. This creates an “energy excess” on the planet’s north pole. The reverse occurs when the northern hemisphere has its autumn and winter, and the southern hemisphere experiences spring and summer. In this scenario, an even stronger energy excess develops in the southern regions.

Researchers suggest this occurs because Mars is closest to the sun during the southern spring, increasing the solar energy the planet receives and the resulting energy surplus then triggers dust storms across the planet.

When the southern hemisphere warms up, the layer of Mars’ thin atmosphere in contact with it increases in temperature as well, creating conditions that can lift dust particles and create the infamous dust storms.

The study was published in the journal AGU.

Ancient MarsMars once had waterWiki commons

Another peculiar Martian feature is its dichotomy; the southern hemisphere has a ticker crust and is higher in elevation than the northern hemisphere. It’s a fundamental feature of Mars, but experts have been unable to specify as to why it exists, although there are theories, such as a massive "marsquakes", or impact to the southern hemisphere.

The northern hemisphere likely had a large body of water about 4.3 billion years ago, as Mars was once a wet planet before it became the cold and dry world it is today. Water is one of the key components of life as we know it, and therefore it's possible Mars could have supported life in the past, although there is no concrete evidence there has ever actually been life on Mars.

However, water still exists in its polar caps and there are traces of vapour in its atmosphere. An analysis suggested that there is a significant amount of water deep in the planet’s crust. The issue they now face is that this water is so deep underground, they can’t actually reach it.

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