Brilliant, iridescent and bright clouds have been spotted on the surface of the Red Planet by Nasa’s rover
In the sky of Mars there are clouds. That’s what was captured in new images from Nasa’s Curiosity rover. The aerospace agency reported that in the thin atmosphere of the Red Planet clouds are rare and, usually, form at its equator during the coldest time of the year. In Nasa’s description, the photographed cumulus clouds are like “thin wisps filled with ice crystals that scattered the light of the setting sun, some of them glistening in color.”
Already last year, which is equivalent to two Earth years, scientists had noticed that some clouds had begun to form earlier than expected. The latest startling images, however, have provided new insights for the scientific team examining them. The clouds were taken in March and would be at higher altitudes than most Martian clouds observed so far, which typically hover about 60 kilometers above the planet’s surface. The latter are made of water ice, while those at high altitudes are likely made of frozen carbon dioxide or dry ice, according to Nasa.
Curiosity’s images
Curiosity provided both black-and-white and color images: the black-and-white photos show more clearly the rippling details of the clouds, while the color photos show cumulus clouds that literally “glow.” Seen just after sunset, their ice crystals capture the light that makes the then glow in the dark sky.
These twilight clouds are also known as “noctilucents” and become brighter as they fill with crystals, then darken as the Sun’s position in the sky drops below their altitude. Curiosity also captured images of iridescent “mother-of-pearl” clouds with pastel colors that Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, said could come from cloud particles of nearly identical size. The phenomenon usually happens soon after the clouds are formed and they all grow at the same rate.
In the meantime, an Italian team from the Politecnico di Milano has discovered that water is hidden in the Moon’s sand because all the components of H2O are among the grains. While the Red Planet could host the first city of the future, Nüwa, a completely sustainable metropolis.