In cloud formation, space weather is to blame.
The scientists of the mission Mars Express has solved the mystery plume on Mars.
For the first time an unusual cloud at anomalously high altitude (250 km) discovered in 2012 by Amateur astronomers. It is reported by the European space Agency.
In 2012, the plume formed ten hours, stretched over an area of 500 thousand square kilometers and disappeared in ten days. The structure was located much above the region where carbon dioxide and water could be formed in the clouds.
Meanwhile, as drew the attention of scientists, the plume existed in the ionosphere (the upper atmosphere), where the gas shell of a planet interacts with charged particles from the Sun. Scientists have shown that at the time of the appearance of the anomalous plume on Mars coincides with the coronal mass ejection from the Sun. Events on the sun, space weather changed and caused, scientists believe, to a brief increase in the rate of leakage of plasma (with the formation of the plume) from the atmosphere of Mars.
The European station Mars Express with the descent probe Beagle 2 went to Mars in 2003. She was able to detect the cap of water ice at the South pole of the red planet and find its methane emissions. The descent of Beagle 2 on the surface of the planet on 25 December 2003.
