The Paper's reporter Zhang Jing
After sunset on March 19, Curiosity captured the clouds. The image consists of 21 separate images stitched together and color-corrected to make the scene look like what the human eye sees.
NASA recently disclosed the clouds captured by the Curiosity rover on Mars. These clouds formed earlier than expected and were also located higher than the clouds on Mars typically.
In the thin, dry atmosphere of Mars, cloudy weather is rare. Clouds usually occur at the Martian equator during the coldest part of the year, when Mars is at its furthest distance from the Sun in its elliptical orbit.
But 2 years ago, scientists discovered that clouds over Curiosity formed earlier than usual. This year, scientists began documenting these early formation clouds to study how clouds on Mars formed.
On March 19, Curiosity photographed clouds drifting over Mount Sharp on Mars.
NASA says the Curiosity team has actually made a new discovery that these early arrival clouds are taller than the usual ones. In general, most Martian clouds are no more than 60 km high in the sky and are made up of water ice. Curiosity's clouds are taller and colder higher, meaning these clouds are likely to be made up of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide).
Scientists are looking for subtle clues to determine the height of the clouds, and more analysis is needed to pinpoint which of these clouds curiosity recently photographed are clouds of water ice and which are clouds formed by dry ice.
After sunset on March 31, curiosity navigation camera captured the clouds.
After sunset on March 28, curiosity navigation camera captured clouds.
The ripples in these clouds can easily be seen in the images taken by Curiosity's black-and-white navigation camera. Color images taken by the rover mast camera can see clouds scattering sunset light.
These twilight clouds, known as "luminous clouds," become brighter when filled with crystals, and darken again when the sun's position in the sky falls below the clouds, NASA said. It's also one of the clues scientists can use to determine the height of the clouds.
On March 5, Curiosity's mast camera captured rainbow clouds, or "mother-of-pearl clouds."
NASA also photographed rainbow clouds on Mars, or "mother-of-pearl clouds." Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at the Boulder Space Science Institute in Colorado, says that if you see clouds of faintly glowing pastel colors, it's because the particle sizes of those clouds are almost identical. This usually happens after clouds form, and these clouds grow at the same rate.
NASA mentioned in the statement that if humans stay on curiosity and look at them, they can see these colors with the naked eye, although they are very weak.
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