Post by @petergleick@fediscience.org

2026-10-07 19:43 UTC

Check out this amazing story (to me, anyway) of a 1000-mile-long cloud that consistently forms and disappears on #Mars. As a climate and water scientist, this fascinates me. https://www.livescience.com/space/mars/1-000-mile-long-cloud-that-forms-and-vanishes-on-mars-every-day-obeys-exotic-physics-never-seen-on-earth

Replies (4)

@petergleick@fediscience.org 2026-10-07 22:05

Here is the actual paper, for those sufficiently interested in the science! Hernández-Bernal, J., Määttänen, A., Spiga, A., & Forget, F. (2026). Homogeneous ice nucleation from water vapour suggested by elongated clouds on Mars. Nature Geoscience. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-02089-9

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@TrueNorthSpice@mastodon.world 2026-10-07 20:03

@petergleick@fediscience.org Most interesting!! and TIL a new to me term heterogeneous nucleation cool! Thanks for posting the article

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@joelvanderwerf@mastodon.social 2026-10-07 20:49

@petergleick@fediscience.org Huh, I wonder why the hypothesis isn't: High wind hits the summit of Arsia Mons, which is covered with a thick layer of frost, sending frost particles into the upper atmosphere where water vapor nucleates around them. That would still be heterogeneous nucleation rather than the mysterious homogeneous kind. I'm not a climate scientist or physicist, but that just seems like a place to apply occam's razor.

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@SpaceLifeForm@infosec.exchange 2026-10-07 22:21

@petergleick@fediscience.org I would suspect dry ice and water mixing. Good special effect on Halloween.

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