NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has captured photos of solar rays shining via the clouds at sundown, the primary time this kind of mild has ever been noticed on the Purple Planet.
Mars is thought for being gloomy with the environment usually chocked up with mud so it’s uncommon to get seen solar rays shining over the Earth’s neighboring planet.
The picture was taken on February 6, NASA says, and is the primary time that the solar rays, often known as crepuscular rays, have been seen so clearly.
The Curiosity Rover shared the picture to its Twitter page and it was taken as a part of the rover’s twilight cloud survey.
The picture was captured as a panorama, stitched collectively from 28 photos and despatched again to Earth. NASA says that the image has been processed to emphasise the highlights,
Effectively, this can be a first… 😍
As I watched the sundown final month, I captured one thing spectacular: My workforce says these are a few of the most clearly seen photos of solar rays we have ever seen on Mars! pic.twitter.com/HIgzZHdAyV
— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) March 6, 2023
“Whereas most Martian clouds hover not more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the bottom and are composed of water ice, the clouds within the newest photos seem like at a better altitude, the place it’s particularly chilly,” writes NASA in a press release. “That means these clouds are manufactured from carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice.”
The clouds present NASA with necessary info to know Martian climate. Similar to on Earth, by when and the place the clouds type scientists can find out about Mars’s environment, temperatures, and winds.
Colourful Clouds Over Mars
Along with the solar rays, on January 27 the rover captured colourful clouds formed like a feather. When illuminated by daylight, sure varieties of clouds can create a rainbow-like show referred to as iridescence.
“The place we see iridescence, it means a cloud’s particle sizes are similar to their neighbors in every a part of the cloud,” says Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Area Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
“By shade transitions, we’re seeing particle dimension altering throughout the cloud. That tells us about the best way the cloud is evolving and the way its particles are altering dimension over time.”
