Nasa’s Curiosity rover captured a blinding sundown on Mars, the primary time solar rays have been so clearly considered on the planet.
Martian sunsets are uniquely moody, however the rover captured one final month that stands out, mentioned the area company.
Because the Solar descended over the horizon on 2 February, rays of sunshine illuminated a financial institution of clouds.
These ‘sun rays’ are often known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin phrase for ‘twilight’.
Curiosity captured the scene through the rover’s latest twilight cloud survey, which builds on its 2021 observations of noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds.
Whereas most Martian clouds hover not more than 60 kilometres above the bottom and are composed of water ice, the clouds within the newest photographs look like at the next altitude, the place it’s particularly chilly.
That implies these clouds are fabricated from carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice.
As on Earth, clouds present scientists with advanced however essential info for understanding the climate.
By taking a look at when and the place clouds type, scientists can study extra concerning the Martian ambiance’s composition and temperatures, and the winds inside it.
The 2021 cloud survey included extra imaging by Curiosity’s black-and-white navigation cameras, offering an in depth have a look at a cloud’s construction because it strikes. However the latest survey, which started in January and can wrap up in mid-March, depends extra typically on the rover’s shade Mast Digicam, or Mastcam, which helps scientists see how cloud particles develop over time.
Along with the picture of solar rays, Curiosity captured a set of vibrant clouds formed like a feather on 27 January. When illuminated by daylight, sure varieties of clouds can create a rainbowlike show known as iridescence.
‘Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud’s particle sizes are an identical to their neighbors in every a part of the cloud,’ mentioned Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Area Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
‘By looking at color transitions, we’re seeing particle measurement altering throughout the cloud. That tells us about the best way the cloud is evolving and the way its particles are altering measurement over time.’
Curiosity captured each the solar rays and iridescent clouds as panoramas, every of which was stitched collectively from 28 photographs despatched to Earth. The photographs have been processed to stress the highlights.
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