# Mysterious Cloud Spotted On Mars **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910 "2015-02-17T14:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/1 "2015-02-17T14:08:47Z")
According to The Huffington Post: > **[Mysterious Cloud Spotted On Mars](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mars-cloud_n_6696056?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592)** > > Mysterious Cloud Spotted On Mars > [@](#): > > A massive cloud or plume has been spotted on Mars, and scientists aren’t sure what it is or how it got there. > > The plume was first spotted by amateur astronomers in March 2012. Wayne Jaeschke, a patent attorney and member of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers, said the formation was so unusual he thought something was wrong with his camera. > > “I sent a couple of frames to some guys I know in Australia and asked, ‘Am I seeing things?’” Jaeschke said, according to National Geographic. > > There was nothing wrong with Jaeschke’s camera or his eyesight because soon, other amateur Mars-watchers also spotted the formation and saw it grow and change shape for about 10 days. What started out as “double blob protrusions” transformed into a “finger” pointing up into space, according to a study on the formations published in Nature. I’ve read this one before: > [@](#): > > The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, “as flaming gases rushed out of a gun.” > > A singularly appropriate phrase it proved. Yet the next day there was nothing of this in the papers except a little note in the Daily Telegraph, and the world went in ignorance of one of the gravest dangers that ever threatened the human race. I might not have heard of the eruption at all had I not met Ogilvy, the well-known astronomer, at Ottershaw. He was immensely excited at the news, and in the excess of his feelings invited me up to take a turn with him that night in a scrutiny of the red planet. –H.G. Wells _The War of the Worlds_(1897) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/2 "2015-02-17T15:12:52Z")
Chances are a million to one. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/3 "2015-02-17T17:03:52Z")
A million to one, you say? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/4 "2015-02-17T18:37:11Z")
Why is it that they haven’t supposed a volcanic plume? Is Mars’s interior supposedly cold and dead? ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/5 "2015-02-17T18:39:40Z")
Meteorite impact perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/6 "2015-02-17T18:43:27Z")
**Marvin the Martian-** “Where’s the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!” ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/7 "2015-02-17T19:26:28Z")
So the Martian cloud-gods are giving the finger to space- is this really surprising? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/8 "2015-02-17T19:46:33Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Why is it that they haven’t supposed a volcanic plume? Is Mars’s interior supposedly cold and dead? No, there’s hot magma under the surface, and some volcanic activity could be as recent as 10’s of millions of years, which to some scientists means “still volcanically active.” I wouldn’t be surprised if some magna weren’t coming into contact with subsurface ice or liquid in that area. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mysterious-cloud-spotted-on-mars/712910/9 "2015-02-17T19:49:08Z")
Mostly I’m kind of surprised that they’ve thrown out a couple possible explanations and a volcanic plume wasn’t among them.