NASA’s Curiosity rover captures clouds in Martian Atmosphere, confirmed sources. Now, it is a known fact until now that clouds form at the equator on Mars. And also when the position of the planet is farthest from the sun, i.e. in the coldest time of the year. But NASA scientists with the help of the Curiosity rover have recorded the formation of clouds sooner than expected. The clouds appeared as straggly silhouettes in the images accompanied with ice crystals. So, they are not just a beautiful show to look at but are also a subject of the mystery of these scientists.

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NASA’s Curiosity rover captures clouds in Martian Atmosphere:

So, when the team, started to gather early images of clouds in late January, they got some amazing pictures. This has given scientists a great reason to explore clouds in the Martian Atmosphere even more. The images show that these clouds have appeared at higher altitudes than usual. And the team says that it will take more analytical sessions to get real conclusions. As many of these images show that clouds in the Martian atmosphere could also be made of frozen carbon-di-oxide. In addition to the normal water ice, it will be interesting for scientists to find that these clouds are also made from dry ice. Now, the rover’s Mastcam’s color images reveal that these clouds shimmer in the dark sky.

The Twilight Clouds and the Mother of pearls:

The team has termed these clouds as “noctilucent”, which means something that shines in the night. There are even brighter and glistening clouds called, “Mother of Pearls”. Mark Lemmon is an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. And quotes, “If you see a cloud with a shimmery pastel set of colors in it, that’s 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.”