5, 2022, when a dust storm near Jazero Crater had other plans. NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter was due to make its 19th flight on the Red Planet on Jan. These dust storms can play havoc with Mars exploration missions and can even ground flights (yes Earth isn't the only planet where flights can be delayed due to poor weather!). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) (opens in new tab) The images were captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and show the large dust storm that enveloped Mars, causing NASA's Opportunity rover to lose contact with Earth. The effects of a dust storm that blanketed Mars in 2018. These usually take place in the spring or summer. The dust storms of Mars are the largest in the solar system, capable of blanketing the entire planet and lasting for months. Dust is also a permanent part of the atmosphere, with higher amounts of it in the northern fall and winter, and lower amounts in the northern spring and summer. Giant dust devils routinely kick up the oxidized iron dust that covers Mars' surface. Every spring, some of the mass within these caps sublimates to rejoin the atmosphere, and the caps visibly shrink as a result," ESA stated. "Each winter, up to a third of the mass in Mars' atmosphere condenses to form an icy layer at each of the planet's poles. "The lower and middle levels of Mars' atmosphere appear to be coupled to the upper levels: there's a clear link between them throughout the martian year," says Beatriz Sánchez-Cano, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester, UK. These seasonal changes to the ice caps affect Mars' atmosphere, which responds as one large interconnected system, according to a statement from ESA. Mars' ice caps - made of water ice and carbon dioxide, shrink and grow in response to the seasons. Length of seasons on Mars and Earth according to NASA Science. Like Earth, Mars has four seasons but due to the Red Planet's eccentric orbit, the length of each season varies more than on Earth, according to NASA science (opens in new tab). The average temperature on Mars is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), although it can vary from minus 195 F (minus 125 C) near the poles during the winter to as much as a comfortable 70 F (20 C) at midday near the equator. Mars is much colder than Earth due to the thin atmosphere and the fact it is farther from the sun. However, for reasons that are still poorly understood, the Martian atmosphere thinned. Orbital pictures show vast river plains and possible ocean boundaries, while several Mars rovers have found evidence of water-soaked rocks on the surface (such as hematite or clay). According to NASA, some surface features suggest that Mars experienced huge floods about 3.5 billion years ago. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS) (opens in new tab)Įarly in its history Mars had a thick enough atmosphere for water to run on its surface. The white specks are salt deposits found within a dry channel, a clue to its watery past. It has also been implicated in Mars’s plate tectonics and possibly also changes in its climate.This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Bosporos Planum plain on the Red Planet. This region has roughly the same mass as the dwarf planet Ceres, and it may well have affected the may well have affected the planet’s rotation rate. Constant volcanic activity from the three largest volcanoes on Mars built up a huge region called the Tharsis Bulge (or Tharsis Rise). Scientists do not know if there is an active volcanism deep beneath the surface. Long-ago plate motions are thought to be what began the formation of the Valles Marineris canyon system.Ĭlearly there has been volcanic activity in the past, eruptions that built Olympus Mons and the other volcanoes that rise up from the rusty red surface. Other modern studies of the planet suggest that the crust of Mars may have some simple plates riding atop a solid mantle. Recent data from the Mars orbiting missions show that the Red Planet has a solid iron core, which helps generate the planet’s weak magnetic field. Mars is known as a rocky, “terrestrial” planet, which makes it very similar to Earth.