A team led by planetary scientist Jorge Hernández-Bernal of Sorbonne Université has produced the first successful computer model explaining the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), a wispy formation that stretches over 1,000 miles across Mars each spring and summer morning before vanishing. The cloud, first spotted by a probe in 2018, had defied explanation until the simulation incorporated a physical mechanism long treated as theoretical and never previously observed occurring in any planet's atmosphere.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-24
Researchers led by Jorge Hernández-Bernal of Sorbonne Université have produced the first successful computer model of the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, a recurring Martian formation that stretches over 1,000 miles each spring and summer before vanishing. Published in Nature Geoscience, the study suggests the cloud forms through homogeneous nucleation, a process where water vapor turns directly into ice crystals without dust or other particles to help it along.
wired.com
· 2026-10-23
Researchers studying a recurring, elongated cloud near Mars's Arsia Mons volcano say it forms through a physical process never before documented in a planetary atmosphere. The cloud behaves differently from typical water-ice clouds seen elsewhere on the planet, prompting closer scrutiny of how it develops and dissipates.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-08
GoKawiil