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Carbon dioxide clouds over Mont Mercou, Curiosity Sol 3063 (53100058892)
semeion.photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Simeon Schmauß
Taken on 19 March 2021, 13:58:25
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- Carbon dioxide clouds over Mont Mercou, Curiosity Sol 3063
- Rights
- CC BY 2.0, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
About this work
The Curiosity Mars rover photographed these feathery carbon dioxide clouds on Sol 3063, over an outcrop named Mont Mercou [1]. The clouds were much higher than is typical for Mars.[2] Panorama assembled from 21 individual Mastcam images. The colors of this image were calibrated to match human perception. From NASA's page about these clouds: "The fine, rippling structures of these clouds are easier to see with images from Curiosity’s black-and-white navigation cameras. But it's the color images from the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam, that really shine – literally. Viewed just after sunset, their ice crystals catch the fading light, causing them to appear to glow against the darkening sky. These twilight clouds, also known as "noctilucent" (Latin for "night shining") clouds, grow brighter as they fill with crystals, then darken after the Sun's position in the sky drops below their altitude. This is just one useful clue scientists use to determine how high they are."
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