celestialreconnaissance:”It was colder than the surface of Mars today!!” This is somet
celestialreconnaissance: ”It was colder than the surface of Mars today!!” This is something that I keep hearing in the news, and has been floating around the past few winters. I have to be honest, it’s pretty dumb. Mars is a terrible thing to be comparing climate conditions to. There are a few factors that people are missing when they make that statement….I’m going to point some of those out. First things first, the temperature values that people are using from Mars are typically coming from the Curiosity rover. Curiostiy has been rovin’ around in Gale Crater, which for some reason, is also unseasonably warm right now. So far, Curiosity has recorded temperatures from -90ºC - 0ºC (-130ºF - 32ºF). Gale Crater is also close to the Martian equator, and similarly to Earth, this makes a big difference in temperatures. So when people are saying, “it’s colder than the surface of Mars”, they actually mean, “this location is currently colder than the current temperature recorded at Curiosity’s location in Gale Crater on Mars.” 1) There isn’t one global temperature This should be a no brainer. For some stupid reason, it was 60ºF today where I live in Northern California (winter is being strange). It was not 60ºF in most other places in the world, especially in most other places in the US. This is the same thing as Mars. Different locations = different temperatures. 2) The average surface temperatures between Earth and Mars are still incredibly different I don’t care how cold it was at your house, the average surface temperature of the Earth stays more or less the same because somewhere else in the world, it was warm. The average surface temperature of Earth is about 14ºC (57.4ºF). The average surface temperature of Mars is typically around -55ºC (-67ºF). Mars, however, is far more extreme than Earth. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -94.7ºC (-135.8ºF). It’s safe to say that this temperature is extremely rare on Earth and only found in polar regions. This temperature, however, is not out of the ordinary on Mars. In fact, it can easily be that temperature on Mars. This is why your cold day, though it was probably indeed cold, is still pretty unimpressive when you compare it Martian temperatures. 3) Location and seasons make a difference Again, same as on Earth. On Mars, it can make it up to 21ºC (70ºF). This would be at “the heat of the day” near the equator during summer time. Come nighttime, the temperature can plummet again, as I mentioned above. Also, Martian poles can easily reach -153ºC (-220ºF), which is significantly colder than any temperature recorded on Earth. 4) Wind chill is not a factor on Mars You know how you check the weather and they’ll say the temperature in big print, then nearby in small print, it will say “feels like….” or list the “wind chill factor”? Why? Wind chill is kind of hard to explain, so here’s what wikipedia says: “Wind-chill or windchill, (popularly wind chill factor) is the perceived decrease in air temperature felt by the body on exposed skin due to the flow of air.” This means that wind chill is basically a product of your body heat interacting with the atmosphere by losing heat via convection. Air will feel colder when it moves faster and/or has more moisture in it. This is why it’s perceived as colder than it actually is when it hits your skin. This wouldn’t happen in Mars’ rinky dink little atmosphere, even with bone chilling temperatures and rip roaring winds. Of course, if you were exposed to Mars’ atmosphere, you’d run into bigger problems than just the cold temperatures, thanks to the lack of air pressure and oxygen. Say goodbye to your lungs and all the gases and fluids in your body. You’d be dead fairly quickly. It’d be so terrible, the temperature wouldn’t even be your main concern. So next time you hear someone say that it’s colder than the surface of Mars, now you have all this information (if you actually read it). Congratulations! You now know that is a terrible analogy. Instead of saying, “wow, it’s colder than the surface of Mars”, opt for a more classy and scientifically accurate phrase: “It’s cold as balls.” Tis the season to annoy the crap out of Kristy again. -- source link