Nasa rover captures stunning Martian sunset breaking through clouds

A BREATHTAKING new image of a Martian sunset has been revealed by Nasa.

In the image, the Sun’s rays can be seen creating a beautiful feather-like cloud in Mars’ sky.

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Nasa’s Curiosity rover snapped the image, and several others that showed the clearest images we’ve seen of Sun rays on Mars to date.

The photo of the feather cloud was taken on January 27, as the Sun illuminated that part of the sky to create iridescence.

“Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud’s particle sizes are identical to their neighbors in each part of the cloud,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

“By looking at color transitions, we’re seeing particle size changing across the cloud. That tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time.”

In the photos of the Sun’s rays, which were snapped on March 2, viewers can see something known as crepuscular rays.

This term describes sunbeams that originate when the Sun is just below the horizon, during the twilight period. 

On Monday, Nasa shared such an image on Curiosity’s official Twitter account.

“Well, this is a first…As I watched the sunset last month, I captured something spectacular: My team says these are some of the most clearly visible images of sun rays we’ve ever seen on Mars!” the tweet read.

Curiosity’s latest images provide a significant amount of data to Nasa scientists.

“Curiosity captured the scene during the rover’s newest twilight cloud survey, which builds on its 2021 observations of noctilucent, or night-shining, clouds,” Nasa said in a blog post.

“While most Martian clouds hover no more than 37 miles above the ground and are composed of water ice, the clouds in the latest images appear to be at a higher altitude, where it’s especially cold,” the space agency added.

This suggests that the clouds are made of carbon dioxide ice or dry ice.

More broadly, the data will provide scientists with crucial information about Martian weather.

“By looking at when and where clouds form, scientists can learn more about the Martian atmosphere’s composition and temperatures, and the winds within it,” Nasa said.

Curiosity was built by Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in partnership with Caltech in California.

JPL leads the mission on behalf of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.