NASA’s Curiosity Captures first-ever Martian’ Sun rays & Rainbow’

As per a report from the American space agency, the first-ever most clearly viewed “sun rays” on Mars have been captured by NASA rover “Curiosity.”

On 2nd February, the captured images of sunbeams showed the “light rays illuminating from a bank of clouds” as the Sun moved below the horizon. These Sun rays are also named “crepuscular or god rays,” relating to the Latin word twilight.

The image was taken by Curiosity Mastcam, also known as the color Mast Camera during its most recent twilight cloud survey, which started in January and will end in the mid of March. Mastcam enables researchers to observe the development of cloud particles over time.

Mostly Martian (Mars) clouds are made up of water ice and float at a height above 60 kilometers.

But the latest pictures showed the clouds at a higher altitude, where the temperature is very low, indicating that these clouds are composed of dry ice or carbon dioxide ice.

On Earth, scientists gather essential data about weather by observing clouds process. Therefore, by observing Martian clouds’ formation closely, Scientists can learn more about their atmosphere composition, temperature, and winds.

Additionally, on 27th January, right after sunset, Curiosity captured a group of colorful clouds with a feather-like shape. It happens when certain clouds are illuminated by sunlight and produce a rainbow-like display; this phenomenon is known as Iridescence.