NASA rover captures pictures of mysterious “mother-of-pearl” clouds above Mars

New pictures captured by means of NASA’s Interest rover display colourful clouds within the sky over Mars.

The pictures had been captured by means of the rover’s Mastcam, which NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in comparison to the rover’s eyes. The clouds had been noticed on Jan. 17, and the footage had been taken over the process 16 mins, the distance company mentioned in a information unencumber.

The clouds, referred to as noctilucent or twilight clouds, comprise frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. They’re tinted with colours when the environment Solar scatters mild. That colour has resulted in them being nicknamed “mother-of-pearl” clouds. 

Whilst Mars’ setting is 95% carbon dioxide, few of its clouds are at a prime sufficient setting and occasional sufficient temperature to comprise frozen carbon dioxide. Maximum clouds on this planet are manufactured from water ice. The clouds photographed by means of Interest are at an altitude of 37 to 50 miles above the planet’s floor. Different pictures display the clouds as white plumes falling in the course of the setting, prior to evaporating about 31 miles above Mars. 

The twilight clouds have most effective been noticed in some spaces of Mars’ southern hemisphere. NASA’s Perseverance Rover, which landed on Mars’ northern hemisphere in 2021, has now not noticed the clouds because it landed, however Interest has noticed them within the southern hemisphere in 4 other Mars years. 

Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the House Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, advised NASA that he believes positive areas of the planet are much more likely to shape the clouds. Gravity waves, which cool a planet’s setting, generally is a issue, he mentioned. 

“Carbon dioxide used to be now not anticipated to be condensing into ice right here, so one thing is cooling it to the purpose that it might occur,” Lemmon mentioned in NASA’s information unencumber. “However Martian gravity waves aren’t absolutely understood and we aren’t solely certain what’s inflicting twilight clouds to shape in a single position however now not any other.” 

Although researchers do not completely know the way the clouds are shaped, they are able to are expecting when and the place they’ll seem. Lemmon, who used to be a lead researcher on a 2024 paper detailing Interest’s first two years of cloud observations, mentioned the phenomenon has “develop into so predictable that we will be able to plan our photographs upfront.” 

The brand new cloud footage don’t seem to be the one knowledge Interest has despatched again to NASA in fresh weeks. The rover not too long ago investigated a spot referred to as the Gediz Vallis channel, the distance company mentioned. 

It additionally visited an have an effect on crater nicknamed “Rustic Canyon” to take footage and find out about the rocks across the crater. The 67-foot extensive crater most likely shaped thousands and thousands of years in the past, in line with the erosion of the website, NASA mentioned. 

The rover will proceed directly to a brand new location that incorporates what NASA referred to as “boxwork,” or fractures within the planet’s floor shaped by means of groundwater. When noticed from area, the fractures appear to be massive spiderwebs, NASA mentioned.