] 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." RedNova News: The Giant Dust Storms on Mars |