This is the Appearance of a Sunset on Mars, Curious? | space

SPACE — We’re all used to seeing sunsets on Earth, but what about sunsets on Mars?

The Curiosity rover of the American Space Agency (NASA) captured this stunning photo of a sunset on Mars. As the sun sinks over the horizon, its light forms into rays of sunlight that can be seen streaking across the sky.

Technically, these rays are known as crepuscular rays. This is the first time this phenomenon has been imaged in such detail on Mars. By studying how light shines through clouds, scientists can find out more about Mars’ atmosphere and weather system.

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Unlike on Earth, Mars’ atmosphere is very thin. Its density is only 1 percent of Earth’s atmosphere. This density can also change.

Mars experiences strong winds of up to 60 miles per hour. Strong winds can pick up fine dust particles that coat large parts of the planet’s surface and trigger them into global dust storms. Temperature variations on Mars are quite large between day and night.

Due to the thin atmosphere, there are only occasional clouds in the Martian sky. With only a small amount of water vapor present in the atmosphere, cloud presence varies throughout the seasons.

The clouds seen on Mars are unlike those on Earth, as they are composed of liquid water. On Mars, low pressure means clouds are formed from water ice or carbon dioxide (dry ice).

This new image from Curiosity shows clouds at high altitudes. This suggests that the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide, not water ice.

Another image captured recently by Curiosity shows another important cloud phenomenon called iridescence. The color differences seen in clouds can reveal information about the particles that make them up.

“By looking at the color transitions, we see the size of the particles changing in the cloud. It tells us about how clouds evolve and how their particle sizes change over time,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The Verge.

The two images are combined from each of the 28 individual images. The image was taken by Curiosity’s Mastcam instrument.

Curiosity has been conducting cloud surveys since January and will continue for several more weeks.

Curiosity has previously captured other stunning views of the Martian weather phenomenon. For example, a blue sunset imaged in 2015.

The visible color is also caused by dust in the atmosphere. When the picture was taken, there was a dust storm that sent dust floating in the atmosphere.

This suspended dust scatters different colors of light by different amounts, and scatters the light in certain directions. That results in the red light being filtered out more, so what’s left is the blue color seen in the Martian sky.