] On July 1st a bright dust cloud spilled out of Hellas
] Basin, a giant impact crater on Mars' southern
] hemisphere. The cloud quickly spread and by the Fourth of
] July was 1100 miles wide--about one-fourth the diameter
] of Mars itself.
]
] "The cloud can be seen now through a telescope as small
] as 6 inches," says Donald Parker, executive director of
] the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO).
] "Its core is quite bright."