Amateur astronomers, looking at Mars, have discovered giant jets, escaping more than 125 miles above the surface of the planet, a phenomenon that until now cannot be explained.
At least 18 amateur astronomers observed this picture during the 10-day period in March and April 2012, when jets appeared in an area known as “Terra Cimmeria”, located in the southern hemisphere of Mars.
The jets spread 500–1000 km (311–621 miles) in all directions and changed daily. They were discovered during sunrise on Mars.
Spacecraft and ground-based telescopes previously observed clouds formed from carbon dioxide and water crystals on Mars, but they were usually layered and never rose above 100 kilometers or 62 miles from the surface of the planet. The jets were accompanied by some unusual radiance, 1000 times brighter than the aurora on Earth. However, current knowledge about the atmosphere of Mars cannot provide an answer about the origin of this phenomenon.
The first jet, seen on March 12, 2012, appeared as a small protrusion at dusk in the southern Martian hemisphere at the beginning of winter. Over the next few days, the jet grew, and from March 20 to March 21, 18 amateur astronomers were captured in small telescopes.
The phenomenon reappeared in the same area within 10 days between April 6 and April 16, 2012.
The analysis shows that the extreme height of the jet could be above 200 km (124 miles). Nothing like this has ever been observed on Mars.
NASA's Maven spacecraft, which arrives on the Red Planet in September, should help uncover this mystery.
