Incredible NASA Mars Images Show Clouds Passing Across Martian Sky – Newsweek

Clouds can be seen passing through the Martian sky in new images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover.

Curiosity is one of NASA's Mars exploration vehicles which has been on the planet's surface since August 2012. It is the predecessor to the newer Perseverance rover which touched down on Mars almost exactly one year ago in February, 2021.

While Perseverance may be more technically advanced, Curiosity is still operating to this day, and is conducting valuable research on the Red Planet.

Last week, NASA released new images from Curiosity that were taken in mid-December last year at a time when the rover was more than 3,300 Martian days into its ongoing mission.

The images, taken using Curiosity's navigation camera, are snapshots of Mars' clouds. Taken some time apart, the images have been stitched together to form two eight-frame videos.

Taken from two different perspectives, one of the videos shows the clouds passing directly overhead while the other shows the clouds passing over the landscape.

They can be seen below.

The presence of clouds on Mars does not mean liquid water, however. By comparing the two perspectives, scientists were able to calculate that the clouds were around 50 miles high and were probably made out of carbon dioxide ice due to the extremely low temperatures at that altitude.

Scientists should also be able to calculate how fast the clouds are moving, though NASA did not disclose a figure.

Mars is a cold, inhospitable planet with an average temperature of around -81 degrees Fahrenheit, and an atmosphere largely composed of carbon dioxide with some water vapor.

It's not the first time that Curiosity has photographed clouds on Mars. In May 2021, NASA released images of "shining clouds" taken by the rover in March of that year.

The space agency described the Martian clouds as "wispy puffs filled with ice crystals that scattered light from the setting Sun, some of them shimmering with color."

By studying images of Mars' clouds, scientists can understand how they form on Mars and why some are different to others.

NASA's Mars rovers have a habit of exceeding their initial planned operation times. Curiosity's primary mission was due to last just 23 months, but the rover continues to work nearly a decade later.

While this is no doubt an impressive feat of endurance, Curiosity is yet to surpass the marathon efforts of the Opportunity rover, which was designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel around 3,300 feet after landing on Mars in 2004.

But Opportunity just kept on going and its mission was finally declared over in February 2019 after failing to communicate with Earth following a severe dust storm.

By this time the rover had surpassed all expectations, surviving for more than 60 times its life expectancy and travelling more than 28 miles.

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Incredible NASA Mars Images Show Clouds Passing Across Martian Sky - Newsweek