{"id":2251,"date":"2025-06-21T11:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T11:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2251\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T11:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T11:46:16","slug":"a-nasa-spacecraft-just-spotted-a-volcano-on-mars-like-we-have-never-seen-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2251\/","title":{"rendered":"A NASA Spacecraft Just Spotted a Volcano on Mars Like We Have Never Seen Before"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just before dawn on May 2, a camera 240 million kilometers from Earth caught a moment that seemed almost Earth-like: clouds hugging the flanks of a great mountain, and a summit poking defiantly above them. But this had nothing to do with Earth. The mountain was Arsia Mons\u2014one of the tallest volcanoes in the solar system\u2014seen from orbit around Mars.<\/p>\n

The image, captured by NASA<\/a>\u2019s Mars Odyssey orbiter, is the first of its kind: a volcano on the Red Planet<\/a> seen on the horizon, towering above a sea of early-morning water ice clouds. It\u2019s the Martian equivalent of watching Everest rise through Himalayan fog, but on a planetary scale that dwarfs even Earth\u2019s greatest peaks.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe picked Arsia Mons hoping we would see the summit poke above the early morning clouds,\u201d said Jonathon Hill of Arizona State University, who leads operations for the orbiter\u2019s camera. \u201cAnd it didn\u2019t disappoint.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"NASA\u2019s<\/a>NASA\u2019s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter captured the photo of Arsia Mons, an ancient Martian volcano, while the spacecraft was studying the Red Planet\u2019s atmosphere, which appears here as a greenish haze. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU<\/p>\n

Sunrise on a Distant World<\/p>\n

Arsia Mons stands nearly 20 kilometers tall\u2014more than twice the height of Mauna Loa, Earth\u2019s largest volcano from seafloor to summit. It sits in Mars\u2019 Tharsis region, a vast volcanic plateau that also houses Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system. Together with Pavonis Mons and Ascraeus Mons, Arsia Mons forms a chain of giant volcanoes aligned along a planetary crack in the crust.<\/p>\n

What makes this image so striking is its vantage point. Rather than gazing down from above, Odyssey rotated 90 degrees in orbit to look toward the Martian limb\u2014the edge of the planet\u2019s disk. It\u2019s a move the orbiter only began performing in 2023, despite having been in space since 2001.<\/p>\n

This particular view shows Arsia Mons silhouetted against a haze of greenish clouds\u2014water ice, not carbon dioxide\u2014at a time when Mars was at its farthest point from the Sun, a phase called aphelion. During this time, colder temperatures cause a wide belt of clouds to swirl around the equator. This aphelion cloud belt is a well-known Martian feature, but until now, scientists had never seen a mountain summit rising through it from this angle.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing some really significant seasonal differences in these horizon images,\u201d said Michael D. Smith, a planetary scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center. \u201cIt\u2019s giving us new clues to how Mars\u2019 atmosphere evolves over time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This phenomenon is scientifically useful. Water ice clouds form when cold air is forced up the slopes of the volcano, expands, and cools. The clouds thicken during aphelion, revealing how Mars\u2019 atmosphere interacts with its geography.<\/p>\n

Eyes on the Red Planet\u2019s Shifting Skies<\/p>\n

Mars Odyssey has been quietly working for nearly a quarter-century, making it the longest-operating mission around another planet. Originally launched to map the chemical elements and minerals on Mars, it has since evolved into an atmospheric observer, geologist, and now\u2014thanks to its THEMIS camera\u2014a cosmic photographer.<\/p>\n

THEMIS, short for Thermal Emission Imaging System, captures both visible and infrared light. Its infrared capabilities help scientists locate subsurface water ice\u2014crucial information for future crewed missions, as that ice could provide water, oxygen, and even fuel.<\/p>\n

In addition to its atmospheric studies, Odyssey\u2019s camera can image Mars\u2019 tiny moons Phobos and Deimos, and observe seasonal changes in dust and cloud formation. This particular image of Arsia Mons is the fourth such \u201climb\u201d observation the spacecraft has made.<\/p>\n

\"Arsia <\/a>Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the three volcanoes that make up Tharsis Montes, shown in the center of this cropped topographic map of Mars. Olympus Mons, the solar system\u2019s largest volcano, is at upper left. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s Mars Express mission, which also studies the region, has revealed dramatic collapse zones on Arsia Mons\u2019 flanks. These pits, some up to 2 kilometers deep, formed as lava drained from chambers beneath the volcano. Once hollowed out, these chambers collapsed under the weight of surface rock, leaving behind jagged scars.<\/p>\n

For scientists and engineers planning the next generation of Mars missions, these images are more than just pretty pictures. Understanding the planet\u2019s weather, cloud formation, and seasonal variation can directly influence where and when we land future rovers\u2014or people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just before dawn on May 2, a camera 240 million kilometers from Earth caught a moment that seemed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3091,3092,159,67,132,68,3093],"class_list":{"0":"post-2251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-mars","9":"tag-photography","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-volcano"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114721193163198268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}