Thread: What is it?
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Old 10-16-2009, 08:10 AM
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pizzaguy
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Default Re: What is it?

GOT YA!

Boy, some of your guesses are really sexist and womanizing. What a bunch of gearhead pigs - I keep TELLING you people that I am a real wholesome guy.

When will it sink in? I ALSO tell you that I hang out at a place called The Spaceport V4.0 - where we discuss science and astronomy and stuff like that. (Course, we DO have password-protected forums for men only and women only... but that is not the point.)

Wholesome Pizza has posted: The surface of Mars taken from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Hi-Res Camera!


From the link:
What you’re seeing here are sand dunes on Mars. This region is in the center of a large crater at mid-north latitude on Mars, a couple of hours past local noon, and with a resolution of 50 cm (18 inches) per pixel. Sand dunes are common in crater beds, where the wind can blow steadily across the surface and sculpt the ever-present sand into those flowing sculptures.

But what this picture so spectacular are the graceful blue-gray swirls arcing across the dunes. These are caused by dust devils, which are a bit like mini-tornadoes. If the ground gets heated, rising air can punch through cooler air above it. This starts up a convection cell, with warm air rising and cool air sinking. If there is a horizontal wind the cell can start spinning, creating a vortex like a dust devil.


But part of that DOES look like, well, you know.