ASTR 151 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Tharsis, Permafrost
Document Summary
Mars is the closest it gets to earth during opposition. Mars is largest and brightest in the night sky at opposition, when earth lies between mars and the sun. For a century, there was speculation that intelligent life had constructed irrigation canals on. They were strictly a figment of the human imagination. They are actually highly cratered and eroded areas around which surface dust occasionally blows. It is believed that at some point water may have existed in the canals, but were natural canals. Imagine that you will be visiting the southern hemisphere of mars during its summer. The sun rises, the surface warms up, and light winds blow until sunset, when the temperature drops again. Only in the southern summer does the daily routine change. Strong surface winds (without rain or snow) sweep up the dry dust, carry i t high into the stratosphere, and eventually deposit it elsewhere on the planet.
