NASA’s Curiosity rover spots odd, shiny clouds on Mars

It can well see treasure a postcard from Arizona, however this snapshot presentations something scheme more provocative: the planet Mars, as seen by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

The image is a mixture of 21 individual photos the rover took only in the near previous to study a odd form of wispy cloud over its Gale Crater residence. Scientists realized two Earth years ago that the cloud form used to be forming earlier in the Martian 365 days than they anticipated. So this Martian 365 days, Curiosity used to be awaiting the early clouds, and it used to be now not disappointed. The clouds did certainly demonstrate up foundation in unhurried January, when the robotic skywatcher began documenting the wispy, ice-rich clouds scattering daylight hours in every so veritably-shiny displays.

“I continually surprise on the colors that demonstrate up: reds and greens and blues and purples,” Impress Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Dwelling Science Institute in Colorado, mentioned in a NASA assertion. “It be actually frigid to enjoy a examine something luminous with a full bunch coloration on Mars.”

Related: NASA’s Curiosity rover snaps scenic Mars selfie at ‘Mont Mercou’ (photo)

Strangely, these clouds appear better in the Mars ambiance than those clouds scientists veritably search on the planet, constant with NASA. Generally, if a cloud passes over Curiosity, the structures are pudgy of water ice and float about 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the Martian surface.

The clouds in Curiosity’s unique photos are better in the ambiance, although NASA did now not specify their altitude. The distinction would possibly perhaps presumably simply reflect a assorted composition, clouds of frozen carbon dioxide or dry ice, constant with the agency, although the scientists are doubtless to be now not yet confident in that explanation.

The clouds are at their prettiest right after sundown, when the final gentle makes the ice crystals glow, which is why scientists name them noctilucent, or night-luminous. (Curiosity can track these noctilucent clouds with each and every its dusky-and-white navigation cameras and its coloration Mast Camera.)

Some of those clouds even appear a slight iridescent when the cloud particles are very equal sizes, Lemmon mentioned, which veritably occurs when clouds enjoy right shaped and revel in grown on the similar hump.

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