Martians are polluting Mars and Jupiter?
Or perhaps the UN is lying to us about the cause of global warming?
I think it is the latter!
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NASA: Climate change spreads to Jupiter, Mars*
Turbulent storms leaving spots on big planet, ice caps retreating on red
planet
Posted: May 23, 2008
While the former vice president is leading the charge for drastically
changing the way humans do business in a bid to avert catastrophic,
man-made global warming, scientists reported today there is noticeable
climate change taking place on Jupiter, too.
The news follows reports as far back as three years ago that ice caps on
Mars are also retreating much as some of the ice in the Earth's Arctic
circle.
There's one striking difference between Earth and the other two planets,
however. Neither Jupiter or Mars has any people – and no artificial
activity creating so-called "greenhouse gases" like carbon dioxide.
Increased turbulence and storms first observed on Jupiter more than two
years ago are still raging, according to astronomers from the University
of California, Berkeley, and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, who
snapped high-resolution pictures of the planet earlier this month.
Captured with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the 10-meter Keck
II telescope, this so-called "major upheaval" on Jupiter involves
stunning changes in the planet's atmosphere, said lead astronomer Imke
de Pater, professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley.
The new images, the first since Jupiter emerged from its passage behind
the Sun, may show that Jupiter indeed is undergoing a major climate
change, as predicted four years ago.
"One of the most notable changes we observe in both the Hubble and Keck
images is the change from a rather bland, quiescent band surrounding the
Great Red Spot just over a year ago to one that is incredibly turbulent
at both sides of the spot," de Pater said. "During all previous HST
observations and spacecraft encounters, starting with Voyager in 1979,
such turbulence was seen only on the west or left side of the spot."
Jupiter's spots
According to Philip S. Marcus, a professor of fluid dynamics at UC
Berkeley, analysis of the Hubble and Keck images may support his 2004
conjecture that Jupiter is in the midst of global climate change that
will alter temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Celsius, getting warmer
near the equator and cooler near the south pole. He predicted that large
changes would start in the southern hemisphere around 2006, causing the
jet streams to become unstable and spawn new vortices.
"The appearance of the planet's cloud system from just north of the
equator down to 34 degrees south latitude keeps surprising us with
changes and, in particular, with new cloud features that haven't been
previously observed," Marcus said. "Whether or not Jupiter's climate has
changed due to a predicted warming, the cloud activity over the last two
and a half years shows dramatically that something unusual has happened."
Mars, too, is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so
fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, according to
scientists.
Scientists from NASA say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the
1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over
approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in
planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
The Mars Phoenix probe is scheduled to touch down on the red planet
around 7:53 Eastern Time Sunday. If all goes well, it will land near the
red planet's north pole. There, it will sample the ice that lies just
beneath the surface. On-board instruments will analyze the ice and will
look for signs of life.
"By landing on the northern plains, we're looking at active processes
that are taking place today," says Peter Smith, the scientist in charge
of the operation. "And these active processes have to do with the
expansion and contraction of that ice. We're going to see climate change
written into the soils."








