NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured amazing images of clouds on Mars

Sat, 5 Jun 2021 05:55:03 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/29/22460017/nasa-curiosity-rover-captured-images-clouds-on-mars>

"NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured images of clouds on Mars— as described in
its blog post: “wispy puffs filled with ice crystals that scattered light from
the setting sun, some of them shimmering with color.”

According to NASA clouds are rare in the thin atmosphere of Mars, but usually
form at its equator during its coldest time of year. Scientists noticed that
last year — two years ago in Earth time— there were clouds beginning to form
earlier than expected, so this year they were ready.

The images are not only stunning, they’ve provided new insights to the
Curiosity team at NASA. The early clouds are at higher altitudes than most
Martian clouds— which typically hover about 37 miles above the planet’s surface
and are made up of water ice. The higher-altitude clouds are likely made of
frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice, NASA says.

Curiosity provided both black-and-white and color images— the black-and-white
photos show the rippled details of the clouds more clearly."

Via Kenny Chaffin.

Share and enjoy,
               *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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