FP TrendingMarch 23, 2021 4:07:26 PM IS
A car-sized rover that landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, known as the Curiosity rover, has captured stunning images of clouds moving across the surface of Mars. The five-minute clip was taken by cameras mounted on the top of Curiosity and shows clouds over the surface of Mars. The images were taken on March 19, 2021 and shared by North Carolina State University scientist Dr. Paul Byrne.
According to a report in the independent, five minutes of time is captured by the navigation camera on Curiosity in eight separate visuals stitched together. The ‘night-luminous’ clouds on Mars in the video can even be illuminated by the sun at night, because they are so high above the surface.
Clouds in the sky, gently overhead.
On Mars, Friday, March 19, 2021. pic.twitter.com/jJpemPefIV
– Prof. Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) March 20, 2021
The clouds seen in the video seem to move in the same way as those on Earth. But the report states that because of the huge difference in atmosphere between the two planets, the clouds must have formed in different ways. Mars’ atmosphere is thinner than Earth’s. While the atmosphere surrounding our home plant is rich in nitrogen and oxygen, the atmosphere of Mars is rich in carbon dioxide, European Space Agency stated
Comparison of the atmosphere of Mars and the Earth. Image: ESA
Snow was detected on the surface by the Phoenix lander in 2008, it said the IndependentBut unlike on Earth, snow on Mars is formed by carbon dioxide. The thin atmosphere of Mars causes light clouds to form above the surface, while the clouds on Earth are usually thick. The dust formed when space debris hits the planet’s atmosphere is also believed to be responsible for cloud formation.
Considered an ‘alternative’ world for humans to inhabit in the future, the Red Planet is half the size of Earth