Dust storm on Mars

Digital work

Mars has intense dust storms, which sometimes kick up enough dust to be seen by telescopes on Earth. Every year there are some moderately big dust storms that pop up on Mars and they cover continent-sized areas and last for weeks. Once every three Mars years (about 5.5 Earth years), on average, normal storms grow into planet-encircling dust storms, called "global dust storms".
It is unlikely that even these dust storms could strand an astronaut on Mars, however. Even the wind in the largest storms likely could not tip or rip apart major mechanical equipment. The winds in the strongest Martian storms top out at about 100 km (60 miles) per hour, less than half the speed of some hurricane-force winds on Earth. But the atmosphere of Mars is only about 1% as dense as Earth's atmosphere. That means to fly a kite on Mars, the wind would need to blow much faster than on Earth to get the kite in the air.

And Mars got its ring...

Digital work

This is my personal view of the future Martian ring. This image would fit well on a dusty dawn at a latitude of about 20ºN during a Martian equinox.
Phobos is moving closer to Mars every year, meaning the planet's gravitional pull on the satellite is increasing. Some scientists have theorized that Phobos will eventually collide with Mars, but the new research suggests that the small moon may not last that long. After simulating the stresses caused by the tidal pull of Mars some researchers have found that the moon would break up over the course of 20 million to 40 million years, forming a ring of debris around the planet. WOW!

And Mars got its ring... (2)

Digital work

 

 

The same place during midnight. The shadow of Mars projected onto the ring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Martian Devil

Digital work

 

 

Martian dust devils can be up to fifty times as wide and ten times as high as terrestrials dust devils.