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Credit & Copyright: Michael Howard, Tayfun æner and Damien Bouic for unmannedspaceflight.com.
Explanation:
If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see?
Like the
robotic Opportunity rover
rolling across the red planet,
you might well see vast plains of
red sand,
an orange tinted sky, and wispy light clouds.
The Opportunity rover captured just such a vista after arriving at Victoria Crater
earlier this month, albeit in a completely
different direction from the large crater.
Unlike other Martian vistas,
few rocks are visible in
this exaggerated color
image mosaic.
The distant red horizon is so flat and
featureless that it appears similar to the horizon toward a calm blue ocean on Earth.
Clouds on Mars
can be composed of either
carbon dioxide ice or
water ice, and can move quickly,
like clouds move on Earth.
The red dust in the Martian air can change the
sky color above Mars from the
blue that occurs above Earth toward the red, with the
exact color depending on the density and particle size of the floating dust particles.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Mars - clouds - sand
Publications with words: Mars - clouds - sand
See also:
- Nacreous Clouds over Sweden
- Full Moon, Full Mars
- APOD: 2025 January 15 Á Wolf Moon Engulfs Mars
- APOD: 2024 December 3 Á Ice Clouds over a Red Planet
- APOD: 2024 November 19 Á Undulatus Clouds over Las Campanas Observatory
- APOD: 2024 November 10 Á Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
- APOD: 2024 September 9 Á Mars: Moon, Craters, and Volcanos