The ‘Exotic Physics’ Behind a Mysterious 1,000-Mile Cloud on Mars
Scientists have successfully modeled the formation of a massive, mysterious cloud on Mars known as the AMEC. The study suggests the cloud forms through 'homogeneous nucleation,' a rare physical process where vapor turns directly into ice without dust particles.
Why it matters
This discovery provides new insights into atmospheric physics that could apply to Earth and other planets, challenging existing meteorological models.
Since it was first recorded by a probe in 2018, scientists have been unable to find a plausible explanation for the existence of this cloud, often referred to as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC). Until now. Recently, researchers successfully modeled the cloud’s formation for the first time, their results suggesting that it may be driven by a physical process that has never been directly observed in any planet's atmosphere.
"We found that we needed to include some exotic physics … physics that, while included in textbooks, is treated as theoretical and usually thought not to happen in nature. It certainly hasn’t been seen in action before," Jorge Hernández-Bernal, a planetary scientist at Paris’ Sorbonne Université and lead author of the study, said in a press release. "Once we included this physics in our simulations, the AMEC emerged just as we hoped.”
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