For more than a month now, a European orbiter circling Marshas been watching a long, plume-like cloud on the Red Planet.
The cloud has remained in place over a mountain called Arsia Mons near the Martian equator since Sept. 13, according to a statement released by the European Space Agency (ESA). But that location is just a coincidence, the agency adds. No volcanic process is producing the cloud — the volcano hasn’t been active in about 50 million years, scientists believe.
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