Winds of change strike Mars

Link to articleMODS please move if not in the right place

I guess I did not know there was wind on Mars. Don't you need an atmosphere for wind (low and high pressures)

There is also this...

One major cause is the frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, that coats the area in the winter and changes to a gaseous form by the spring

So if there's wind and gasses, why doesn't the gasses blow away into space if there's no atmosphere?

And is there water on Mars if there’s ice??

Mars's northern cap measures around 1 000km across, with layers of ice and dust stacked up to 3km deep.

One last thought.... maybe some day the wind will uncover something more than just "rock formations"

Mars has an atmosphere, albeit a very thin one. But it has one.

Originally posted by Nightfury
And is there water on Mars if there’s ice??

The ice is dry ice, frozen carbon dioxide, not the ice in your drink, frozen water.

Originally posted by Nightfury
One last thought.... maybe some day the wind will uncover something more than just "rock formations"

The winds are also pretty weak so not much dust is moved around, but there's always the hope that it will. Thanks for the info.

look at this site, Mars has wind, atmosphere, ice, water, trees of some kind and a lot more. Mars anomaly research

Originally posted by Nightfury
So if there's wind and gasses, why doesn't the gasses blow away into space if there's no atmosphere?

The atmosphere is made of gasses. Your question does not make sense.
The atmosphere doesn't blow away if the gravity of a planet is high enough.

The moon for ex. has no atmosphere because its gravity is to low. The gases effectively blow away into space. (I hope Zorgon does not read this)

reply to post by scojak

The winds are also pretty weak so not much dust is moved around, but there's always the hope that it will. Thanks for the info.

Not really that weak and they have huge dust storms, hence the Red Planet..

Despite secondhand estimates of higher velocities, official observed gust velocities on Mars are in the range of 80-120 mph (120-160 km/hr). At higher altitudes, the movement of dust was measured at 250-300 mph (400-480 km/hr).

wiki.answers.com...

reply to post by looofo


Mars has lost most of its atmosphere because it has no magnetosphere to protect it from the solar wind.

Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, so the solar wind interacts directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer.

The Solar Wind at Mars

I believe that the rover also spotted that it was snowing in the upper atmosphere with the weather instrumentation on board.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

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