Explanation: If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? You might look out over a vast orange landscape covered with rocks under a dusty orange sky, with a blue-tinted Sun setting over the horizon, and odd-shaped water clouds hovering high overhead. This was just the view captured last March by NASA's rolling explorer, Perseverance. The orange coloring is caused by rusted iron in the Martian dirt, some of which is small enough to be swept up by winds into the atmosphere. The blue tint near the setting Sun is caused by blue light being preferentially scattered out from the Sun by the floating dust. The light-colored clouds on the right are likely composed of water-ice and appear high in the Martian atmosphere. The shapes of some of these clouds are unusual for Earth and remain a topic of research.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Mars
Publications with words: Mars
See also:
- APOD: 2024 November 10 Á Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
- APOD: 2024 September 9 Á Mars: Moon, Craters, and Volcanos
- APOD: 2024 June 5 Á Shadow of a Martian Robot
- Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited
- The Shadow of Ingenuity s Damaged Rotor Blade
- APOD: 2023 November 7 Á A Martian Dust Devil Spins By
- Five Meters over Mars