Related papers: Amplification of dust loading in Martian dust devi…
Experiments were performed to study how rocket exhaust blows soil in lunar and Martian conditions. Jets of gas were blown downwardly at various granular materials while a camera recorded the formation of scour holes as the material was…
Explaining the evidence for surface liquid water on early Mars has been a challenge for climate modelers, as the sun was ~30% less luminous during the late-Noachian. We propose that the additional greenhouse forcing of CO2-H2…
The presence of valleys on ancient terrains of Mars suggest that liquid water flowed on the martian surface 3.8 billion years ago or before. The above-freezing temperatures required to explain valley formation could have been transient, in…
In this study we present the analysis of the dust properties of a local storm imaged in the Atlantis Chaos region on Mars by the OMEGA imaging spectrometer on March 2nd 2005. We use the radiative transfer model MITRA to study the dust…
The low temperatures and high ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels at the surface of Mars today currently preclude the survival of life anywhere except perhaps in limited subsurface niches. Several ideas for making the martian surface more…
Annihilations of weakly interacting dark matter particles provide an important signature for the possibility of indirect detection of dark matter in galaxy halos. These self-annihilations can be greatly enhanced in the vicinity of a massive…
Any rotorcraft on Mars will fly in a low pressure and dusty environment. It is well known that helicopters on Earth become highly-charged due, in part, to triboelectric effects when flying in sandy conditions. We consider the possibility…
Mass ejection in the form of winds or jets appears to be as fundamental to quasar activity as accretion, and can be directly observed in many objects with broadened and blue-shifted UV absorption features. A convincing argument for…
The study of the evolution of Martian atmosphere and its response to EUV irradiation is an extremely important topic in planetary science. One of the dominant effects of atmospheric losses is the photochemical escape of atomic oxygen from…
This article presents a monitoring of the atmospheric dust in the south polar region during spring of martian year 27. Our goal is to contribute to identifying the regions where the dust concentration in the atmosphere shows specific…
Mars today has no active volcanism and its atmosphere is oxidizing, dominated by the photochemistry of CO2 and H2O. Using a one-dimensional photochemical model, we consider whether plausible volcanic gas fluxes could have switched the…
The present Martian climate is characterized by a cold and dry environment with a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxides (CO2). In such conditions, the planetary climate and habitability are determined by the distribution of CO2 between…
We report seismic signals on a desert playa caused by convective vortices and dust devils. The long-period (10-100s) signatures, with tilts of ~10$^{-7}$ radians, are correlated with the presence of vortices, detected with nearby sensors as…
Observations of water ice clouds and aerosols on Mars can provide important insights into the complexity of the water cycle. Recent observations have indicated an important link between dust activity and the water cycle, as intense dust…
We have investigated effects of dust attenuation on quasar luminosity functions using a semi-analytic galaxy formation model combined with a large cosmological N-body simulation. We estimate the dust attenuation of quasars self-consistently…
A central question surrounding possible human exploration of Mars is whether crewed missions can be supported by available technologies using in situ resources. Here, we show that photovoltaics-based power systems would be adequate and…
Neglecting the effects associated with the solar wind plasma, the photoelectrons are the only elementary particles which create an electrical current through sunlit surface of the moon. They are knocked off of the surface soil, rise above…
Mineral clouds in substellar atmospheres play a special role as a catalyst for a variety of charge processes. If clouds are charged, the surrounding environment becomes electrically activated, and ensembles of charged grains are…
A sizable fraction of the total energy density of the universe may be in heavy particles with a net dark $U(1)'$ charge comparable to its mass. When the charges have the same sign the cancellation between their gravitational and gauge…
In many models, dark matter particles can elastically scatter with nuclei in planets, causing those particles to become gravitationally bound. While the energy expected to be released through the subsequent annihilations of dark matter…