UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

According to a new study conducted by a team at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), the clouds that form in Mars’ thin atmosphere are caused by meteors. “Meteor smoke”, which is icy dust that is left behind when a meteor burns up in Mars’ atmosphere, is what partially creates the cirrus-looking clouds that are positioned around 18 miles above the planet’s surface.

Cirrus clouds in the Martian atmosphere may have helped keep Mars warm enough for liquid water to sculpt the Martian surface. Image: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Cornell, JPL, NASA

Cirrus clouds in the Martian atmosphere. Though much less substantial than Earthly clouds, Martian clouds play a big role in that planet’s climate, and may have helped keep Mars warm enough for liquid water to sculpt the Martian surface.

Image: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Cornell, JPL, NASA

Since clouds here on Earth are formed by particles, such as grains of dust or sea salt, that are carried into the air by the wind and then the water molecules condense around them which causes the clouds to form and grow. Mars, on the other hand, has barely any particles floating around since the atmosphere is so thin. But when small meteors enter Mars’ atmosphere, they often burn up which creates fine dust or “meteor smoke” which are the particles needed for clouds to develop.

Earth has noctilucent clouds that are created from the dust of meteors and are seen at an altitude of around 50 miles in the atmosphere. After the sun sets on Earth, the clouds still reflect the light of the sun, so they can be seen glowing a bright blue color.

Noctilucent Clouds

While the dust from the meteors helps to create the Martian clouds, the thin atmosphere only allows for certain types of clouds to form. The clouds are normally very wispy and cotton candy-like – quite similar to Earth’s cirrus clouds. “But just because they’re thin and you can’t really see them doesn’t mean they can’t have an effect on the dynamics of the climate,” stated Victoria Hartwick, who is a graduate student at CU Boulder. In fact, the temperatures at the same height as the clouds could fluctuate warmer or colder by 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to Brian Toon, who is a professor at CU Boulder, “More and more climate models are finding that the ancient climate of Mars, when rivers were flowing across its surface and life might have originated, was warmed by high altitude clouds. It is likely that this discovery will become a major part of that idea for warming Mars.”

You can check out some pictures of the clouds on Mars.

Semicircle view of gray sky with white striped clouds, with low hills on horizon.

A stunning view of cirrus-like clouds seen by the Curiosity rover on Mars, on sol 2417. This is a cloudy day for Mars!

Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Thomas Appéré.

Dark orange planet with scattered large blue patches.

Computer simulation of middle altitude noctilucent clouds on Mars.

Image via Victoria Hartwick.

Feathery clouds on Mars in white on gray.

Noctilucent clouds in Mars’ sky, seen by the Curiosity rover. Curiosity captured these clouds on Sol 2410 (May 18, 2019). The clouds are sunlit although the sun has set; they’re noctilucent clouds or night-shining clouds.

Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/Justin Cowart/The Planetary Society.

Short animated photo of fuzzy white clouds passing through dark gray sky.

Noctilucent clouds in motion, Curiosity, Sol 2405. Curiosity looked upward after sunset on Sol 2405 (May 13, 2019) and saw wispy cirrus clouds in motion, high above the ground. Because of their high elevation, the clouds are still sunlit, making them noctilucent (night-shining) clouds.

Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/Justin Cowart/The Planetary Society.

An example of noctilucent clouds on Earth. Leon KijkindeVegte in the Netherlands caught this photo on the night of June 12, 2019. He posted it at the great Facebook page Noctilucent Clouds Around The World.

Tan planet with darker markings and patches of white clouds seen from orbit.

Patchy clouds on Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, using the MARCI camera. Image via NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems.

While the Martian clouds are much too weak and the atmosphere is too thin to produce rain, snow did fall close to the North Pole in 2008 and was witnessed by the Phoenix Mars Lander. Frost and fog has also been seen on the Red Planet due to a water cycle that occurs even without water on the surface and an extremely thin atmosphere.

An Israeli-led study of the skeletal remains of two humans from the late Middle Paleolithic period, between 70,000 and 60,000 years ago, has yielded surprising findings. In analyzing the first Neanderthal remains found outside caves in the Levant, researchers have found Neanderthals were not merely “cavemen,” but much more flexible in their living habits than commonly held.

As part of major road construction, archaeologists were called in by road company Derekh Eretz Inc. to survey the northern Israel site of Ein Qashish, situated on the banks of the Kishon River. The findings of their study — published Wednesday in the journal Nature Scientific Reports — indicate that 60,000 years ago, as modern humans reached the region, Neanderthals in the Levant inhabited both caves and open landscapes.

The Levant, or Near East, is to date the only known region where the fossil record shows the two populations — Neanderthals and Homo sapiens– existed simultaneously during the Middle Paleolithic era. Unlike earlier studies, however, this survey includes fossils of both types of human individuals — not only from caves, but also from open-air sites.

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“The discovery of Neanderthals at open-air sites during the late MP reinforces the view that Neanderthals were a resilient population in the Levant shortly before Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens populated the region,” the article stated.

An aerial view of Ein Qashsish in northern Israel.

(Erella Hovers, courtesy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

“The new discovery of Neanderthal remains at the late MP open-air site of Ein Qashish provides a window into the settlement and mobility patterns of the Neanderthals of northern Israel,” it continued.

The study was led by Dr. Ella Been from the Ono Academic College, Prof. Erella Hovers from the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Dr. Omry Barzilai from the Israel Antiquities Authority, with the assistance of Dr. Ravid Ekshtain (the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Dr. Ariel Malinsky-Buller (the Museum for Human Behavioral Evolution, Monrepos, Germany).

The Neanderthal tooth found at ‘Ein Qashish, on the banks of the Qishon stream in northern Israel. (Erella Hovers, courtesy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

The Neanderthal tooth found at Ein Qashish, on the banks of the Kishon River in northern Israel.

(Erella Hovers, courtesy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Aided by advanced imaging and statistical techniques, the archaeologists used a single upper molar tooth to represent the remains of one Neanderthal. The second Neanderthal was represented by the lower limbs of an individual who suffered from injuries that likely caused limping. The remains were found within a rich archaeological level containing flint tools, animal bones, and some unusual finds for the period, such as a marine shell, pigments and an antler of a deer, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

A spear point made from flint found at Ein Qashsish in northern Israel.

(Erella Hovers, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)

״A number of researchers have recently claimed that Neanderthals were adapted to life in rugged mountainous terrains whereas modern humans adapted better to flat and open landscapes. The finds from Ein Qashish show that Neanderthals inhabited sites in diverse topographic and ecological contexts,” the IAA said in a press release.

The findings of the study go a long way toward explaining the disappearance of the Neanderthals, according to the IAA.

Whereas traditional explanations hypothesize that Neanderthals in the Near East were unable to adapt to an increasingly dry climate, the Ein Qashish finds indicate that they were adapted to open-air living.

“Our study suggests that Neanderthals were a resilient population that successfully existed in the north of Israel at the time that modern humans arrived from Africa some 60,000 years ago.”

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