NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Sends Photos of Clouds with Ice Crystals on Red Planet

Curiosity, NASA's Mars rover, has captured photographs of "shining" clouds above the Red Planet.

This image was constructed of 21 photos color-corrected, so the scene may be seen as how a human eye would see it.

Until NASA's scientists saw earlier-than-expected clouds in 2020, the agency was prepared to take some of them in mid-January 2021.

Ice crystals in the clouds reflect the setting sun's light.

"If you see a cloud with a shimmery pastel set of colours in it, that's because the cloud particles are all nearly identical in size," Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in the US, said in NASA's blog.

"That's usually happening just after the clouds have formed and have all grown at the same rate," he added.

NASA Curiosity Rover Saw Wispy Puffs on Mars

According to The Verge, NASA's Curiosity rover described the clouds on Mars as "wispy puffs filled with ice crystals that scattered light from the setting sun, some of them shimmering with color."

Clouds are not abundant on the low, arid surface of Mars. However, they typically originate towards the equator during the coldest part of the year.

Scientists noted that clouds began to build sooner than expected last year - two years ago in Earth time - and that they were prepared this year.

Not only are the photographs beautiful, but they also revealed new insights to NASA's Curiosity team. The early clouds are more elevated than most Martian clouds, which normally hang around 37 miles above the planet's surface and are composed of water ice. NASA said the clouds at a higher altitude are most likely formed of frozen carbon dioxide or dry ice.

Curiosity sent both black-and-white and color shots - the black-and-white shots vividly reveal the rippling features of the clouds.

However, the color photographs captured by the rover's mast camera and pieced together from several views are quite breathtaking.

Twilight clouds, also called "noctilucent" (Latin for "night gleaming") clouds, become brighter as they fill with crystals and then dim when the Sun's position in the sky descends below their altitude. This is just one of the essential indicators scientists use to identify their altitude.

Additionally, Curiosity captured photographs of shimmering "mother of pearl" clouds with pastel hues.

NASA Curiosity Rover Probably Saw Frozen Carbon Dioxide, Dry Ice on Martian Surface

The highest clouds reach 60 km above the surface on Mars. But NASA claimed these "early clouds" were at higher altitudes where it was very cold, indicating they were "possibly frozen carbon dioxide or dry ice."

"I always marvel at the colors that show up: reds and greens and blues and purples," Dr. Lemmon said in an ABC Australia report.

Dr. Lemmon added it's "really cool" to see brightly-colored objects on Mars.

The NASA scientist team is still researching the red planet's cloud patterns.