Name: "This doesn’t happen on Earth! Crazy things at the South Pole of Mars."
Start: 2024-10-17T18:00:00-07:00
End: 2024-10-17T19:30:00-07:00
Location: Prim Library at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe

$"This doesn\u2019t happen on Earth! Crazy things at the South Pole of Mars."$

Join Wendy Calvin, planetary scientist, as she describes unique and unusual phenomena on Mars with cool pictures from the latest spacecraft.
About this Event

Join us at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe campus for our next Tahoe Series: "This doesn't happen on Earth! Crazy things at the South Pole of Mars." with Wendy Calvin.

Mars, the next rock out from the sun, has much in common with other terrestrial planets yet hosts many unique and unusual phenomena. It gets cold enough in winter that ~ 1/3 of the atmosphere, which is composed of 96% CO2 gas, will condense directly onto the ground as ice. In the spring, as temperatures warm and that ice sublimes back into the atmosphere, we see unusual geyser-like plumes venting from one special location in the south. Additionally, the perennial south polar cap sports a layer of solid CO2 ice that is tens of meters thick and has unusual erosional patterns. Wendy will describe these phenomena with cool pictures from the latest spacecraft in orbit at Mars.

Wendy Calvin is a planetary scientist who studies the surfaces of solid bodies in our solar system. She’s been a team member on many instruments and missions to study asteroids, Jupiter’s moons, Earth, and especially Mars. She has a particular interest in martian ices and polar processes.