Science: The View from Mariner

A typical Southern California haze hung over Pasadena last week, but at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory there was much less concern about the local weather than about conditions on Mars, some 80 million miles away. As scientists monitored the pictures and scientific data being transmitted from Mariner 9, in its second week in orbit around the distant planet, Mars was still enshrouded in a raging dust storm. While apparently beginning to subside, the giant duster will probably obscure much of the surface for weeks to come. Faced with the growing possibility that the Martian skies will not clear up completely...

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