NASA’s Curiosity Rover I took a picture of the sunset It will make influencers jealous. A car-sized Mars rover captured a dazzling sunset on Mars at the start of his new Cloud Imaging campaign launched in January.
This image, taken on February 2nd, shows rays shining through a row of clouds.These rays are called crepuscular rayscomes from the Latin word for “twilight”. This is the first time the sun’s light has been seen so clearly on Mars, according to NASA.
[Related: What is a ‘Martian flower’?]
Curiosity’s latest twilight cloud survey builds on that Observations published in May 2021 It showed glowing (aka noctilucent) clouds at night. Clouds on Mars are mostly water and ice and only float 37 miles above the ground, but the clouds in this new image appear to be higher, especially in the colder climates. NASA says Their position suggests that noctilucent clouds are made of carbon dioxide ice, or dry ice.
The 2021 cloud survey also includes images produced by Curiosity’s black-and-white navigation camera, allowing astronomers to explore in detail how Martian cloud structures move. This new investigation ended in his mid-March, color must camera– or Mastcam – helps scientists see how cloud particles grow.
Curiosity also captured a series of colorful clouds on January 27th. These feather-shaped clouds iridescent when the sun shines on them
“If you see rainbow colors, it means the cloud’s particle size is the same as its neighbors in each part of the cloud,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Boulder, Colorado. To do. in a statement“When you look at the color change, you can see the particle size changing throughout the cloud. I will tell you if there is.”
[Related: Curiosity found a new organic molecule on Mars.]
Rainbow clouds and sun rays were captured in a panorama stitched together from 28 images sent back to Earth. The image has been processed to enhance the highlights of the image.
Curiosity is the largest and most capable rover NASA has ever sent to Mars. It was launched on November 26, 2011 and landed at the Red Plant on August 5, 2012. First ever panoramic image of Marsof the planet gale crater Rock, soil and air samples were taken for onboard analysis. In 2022, we also discovered carbon that may have come from volcanoes and past life forms.
