{"id":664435,"date":"2026-11-02T09:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/664435\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T09:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T09:58:09","slug":"apod-2026-november-2-a-long-cloud-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/664435\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 November 2 &#8211; A Long Cloud on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: What\u2019s causing this unusually long cloud on <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mars<\/a>?\u00a0Known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/Mars_Express\/Mars_s_oddest_cloud_may_be_even_odder_than_we_thought\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud<\/a> (AMEC) and first recorded by NASA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/viking-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Viking Orbiter 2<\/a> in 1977, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/articles\/marss-most-mysterious-cloud-might-be-defying-textbook-cloud-physics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">strange cloud<\/a> has been imaged in greater detail more recently by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESA<\/a>\u2019s robotic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/Mars_Express\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mars Express<\/a> spacecraft.\u00a0The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/132160802@N06\/49046308893\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">featured<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Images\/2026\/10\/The_Arsia_Mons_Elongated_Cloud_as_seen_by_Mars_Express\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">image<\/a> is from 2018. The <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/kids\/earth\/how-do-clouds-form\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cloud forms<\/a> only during <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2026-march-20-spring-equinox-at-teide-observatory\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spring<\/a> and summer <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceplace.nasa.gov\/seasons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">seasons<\/a> and then only during morning hours. Made of water-ice, the most familiar process that causes <a href=\"https:\/\/airbornescience.nasa.gov\/content\/Sampling_the_composition_of_cirrus_ice_residuals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cloud crystals<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/svs.gsfc.nasa.gov\/10387\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">form around bits of dust<\/a> would fail due to the thinness and lack of dust high in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www1.grc.nasa.gov\/beginners-guide-to-aeronautics\/mars-atmosphere-equation-english\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Martian atmosphere<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41561-026-02089-9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leading speculation<\/a> holds that dust is not involved. After the cloud forms near the volcano <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Arsia_Mons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arsia Mons<\/a>, wind blows the cloud <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/image-article\/apod-2012-april-22-flowing-barchan-sand-dunes-on-mars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">downstream<\/a> \u2014 creating a tail that can extend over 1500 kilometers. Efforts to better understand <a href=\"https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1029\/2020JE006517\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AMEC<\/a>s will continue, an understanding that may bolster a <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/brown-tabby-cat-7GX5aICb5i4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">more complete view<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/kids\/earth\/how-do-clouds-form\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cloud formation<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/earth\/facts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Earth<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: eyeing a cat\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: What\u2019s causing this unusually long cloud on Mars?\u00a0Known as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) and first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[257340,85,46,141,145],"class_list":["post-664435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}