A dust storm obscures the surface of Mars in September 2001.Wikimedia, NASAIn the first weeks of Martian dust storm season, NASA scientists have spotted a sizeable squall on the red planet that is absorbing sunlight and has already raised atmospheric temperatures. Dust from the swirling storm, which has the potential to blanket the planet, could blur photos from NASA’s Curiosity rover and block solar panels on the older Opportunity rover.
"This is now a regional dust storm," Rich Zurek, NASA's chief Mars scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, said in a statement last week (November 21). "It has covered a fairly extensive region with its dust haze, and it is in a part of the planet where some regional storms have grown into global dust hazes."
The Opportunity rover, which arrived on Mars in 2004 to explore an area of the planet called the Meridiani Planum that scientists suspect may be ancient hot springs, has already indicated haziness in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, halfway around the planet, the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in August in search of life and carrying a built-in weather station, is detecting warmer night-time temperatures and a ...
