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=> Topic started by: Psk on February 18, 2015, 04:13:02 AM

Title: Mysterious plume on Mars
Post by: Psk on February 18, 2015, 04:13:02 AM
Amateur astronomers with their lenses turned toward Mars saw strange plumes bubble out from the normally round-appearing atmosphere of the Red Planet. The plumes lasted for around 10 days.

Scientists don't really know what caused it. But thanks to the work of citizen astronomers backed up with data from the Hubble telescope (which, researchers just found out, spotted a similar event in 1997) they now know the phenomenon exists and can put more time and energy into understanding it.

If this plume lasted 10 days surely our probes in orbit around Mars, & our space telescopes got a better look at it. So why don't Nasa & the ESA release the better images of it? Why do we have to rely on amateur astronomer's pictures of the phenomena?