NASA Curiosity Rover has captured some amazing pictures of clouds forming in the Martian sky. This is a rare phenomenon as the atmosphere is thin on Mars but usually forms at equators during the coldest time of the year.
NASA released a blog, detailing the formation of clouds. They had earlier started to notice last year that the clouds had started to form earlier than expected and they were ready to capture the clouds in the sky.
The new clouds captured by the rover are a new discovery as they are formed at altitudes higher than usual Martian clouds, which form at an altitude of 37 miles. These clouds are also different as they are likely formed by frozen carbon dioxide or dry ice, while the normal clouds are formed by water ice.
The images shared by NASA are made up of 21 different images stitched up together and color corrected so that the scene appears as it would to a human eye.
NASA describes the wonderful view of the cloud in their post:
Viewed just after sunset, their ice crystals catch the fading light, causing them to appear to glow against the darkening sky. These twilight clouds, also known as “noctilucent” (Latin for “night shining”) clouds, grow brighter as they fill with crystals, then darken after the Sun’s position in the sky drops below their altitude. This is just one useful clue scientists use to determine how high they are.
The clouds also display a certain set of colors are known as iridescent, or “mother of pearl” clouds. Mark Lemmon an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado explains “that the shimmery pastel set of colors in the clouds is because the cloud particles are all nearly identical in size.“
“That’s usually happening just after the clouds have formed and have all grown at the same rate.“
These colored clouds are one of the most colorful things on the Red Planet. What do you think about this amazing cloud formation on the sky, it certainly seems very cool.
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