What Causes the Prolonged Violent Dust Storms on Mars?

The dust storms that the planet Mars experiences each year are the result of natural phenomena.

Dust storms every Martian year

The Martian calendar is marked each year by a very particular event: enormous dust storms. It must be said that these particles are present in quantity on the “red planet”. Sciencealert tells us that these storms sometimes reach such violence that we can observe them from Earth, every five and a half years, or three years on Mars, according to a study by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The sand, which can be present in these storms, is considered a resource that could prove to be valuable in the years to come, in particular for transforming it into solid bricks, useful for building habitats for example for future colonies.

How are these storms formed?

Even if they are studied closely from Earth, these dust storms on the surface of the Red Planet pose a real problem for the astronomers who have studied them.

“ We need to understand what causes some small or regional storms to become global storms. We don't even fully understand the basic physics that explains how dust storms arise on the surface. “, says Paul Hayne, a researcher and associate professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The consequences of these sandstorms

These storms are not without consequences. Indeed, they have an impact on the planet itself. According to a team of researchers from the University of Colorado, the disappearance of water, and consequently the drying out of Mars, would be caused by these numerous dust winds.

Space probes are also impacted. Always according to Sciencealertstorms were responsible for the loss of the Opportunity rover in 2018 and the Insight lander last year. “Even if the wind pressure is not enough to overturn the equipment, these dust grains can reach considerable speed and hit the astronauts and their equipment”reports Paul Hayne. Be careful therefore for future astronauts who will go to Mars, these storms being very different from what we can experience on our planet.

Source: Sciencealert