NASA shared images of the shining clouds on Mars
Exploring other things beyond Earth seems fascinating, even more so when it’s caught on camera. Case in point: NASA posted new photos from Mars as its Curiosity Rover captured the planet’s shining clouds.
On Monday, NASA decided to share the alluring photos of shining clouds on Mars, as they would describe it. Having cloudy days on the Red Planet is a rare occasion, given that it has a thin and dry atmosphere.
Scientists noticed a formation of clouds over NASA’s Curiosity rover earlier than expected two Earth years ago, which is equivalent to one full Martian year. In January, they were prepared to document “early” clouds from the second they appeared.
Curiosity’s team made a new discovery on clouds that appear earlier than usual are at higher altitudes. Almost all Martian clouds are made up of water ice and drift at around 37 miles or 60 kilometers in the sky.
However, the clouds captured by the rover are at a greater altitude, where it’s freezing. It also indicates that these clouds are possibly composed of frozen carbon dioxide or dry ice.
Six individual images were used for one frame in the image below. Curiosity’s view on Mars shows clouds drifting over Mount Sharp on March 19, 2021.
At the same time, Curiosity also captured iridescent-looking clouds or the so-called “mother of pearl” on March 5, 2021. A wider panoramic view from the rover’s Mast Camera stitched together the shot to make five frames.
‘If you see a cloud with a shimmery pastel set of colors in it, that’s because the cloud particles are all nearly identical in size,’ said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute, as per NASA’s post.
‘That’s usually happening just after the clouds have formed and have all grown at the same rate,’ he continued to talk about the clouds.
Lemon also described these clouds as the more colorful things on Mars. If a person were sky-gazing next to Curiosity, they would faintly see the colors with the naked eye. He shared, ‘I always marvel at the colors that show up: reds and greens and blues and purples.’
Explore more photos and other updates on NASA’s next mission on Mars when you visit their official website.
The post <b>NASA shared images of the shining clouds on Mars</b> appeared first on WE THE PVBLIC.
Source: we the pvblic
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