If you could find a postcard in your mailbox with the photo you see in the preview image, you could guess it’s from Arizona. However, the reality is more exotic. The image with a rock and tufts of clouds comes from Mars.
The photo was taken in the area of Gale’s crater by the robotic rover Curiosity, which has been exploring the red planet since 2012 in the service of the NASA space agency. The image consists of 21 shots from March 19 this year. The result is computer-processed and modified as human eyes would see the scenery.
Glowing clouds floating high above the crater on March 19. | source: Credit-NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
Clouds are not as common on Mars as on Earth. The planet has a dry atmosphere, clouds usually appear in the sky around the equator only when Mars is farthest from the Sun once every two Earth years in its elliptical orbit.
This year, however, the rover recorded “early” clouds before the start of this period of the Martian year. His images capture glittering clouds filled with ice crystals that scatter the light of the setting sun.
Clouds over the crater photographed after sunset on March 28. | source: Credit-NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
Most of the clouds in the Martian sky float to a height of 60 kilometers and contain water ice.
However, some of them that the rover Curiosity noticed are probably even higher – in places where it is very cold. They probably contain frozen carbon dioxide, ie dry ice.
The rippling structures of the clouds can be seen more plastically in the images from the black and white Curiosity navigation cameras. Color images from the Mastcam camera show how the clouds glow. Just after sunset, their ice crystals capture the fading light and illuminate the darkened sky.
Clouds recorded after sunset on March 31. | source:
Profimedia
“I’m amazed at the colors that appear in the clouds – red, green, blue and purple,” NASA’s website quoted astronomer Mark Lemmon of the Colorado Institute of Space Sciences as saying. “It’s really great to see something on Mars that shines with a lot of color.”
Scientists are now analyzing the clouds and trying to determine their height and composition.
And finally a greeting-self from the rover Curiosity. The robotic vehicle crosses the Martian dune on it. | source:
Profimedia
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