Just what caused these ghostly apparitions on the red planet?
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00These gorgeous images are haunting, showing the sun's rays filtering like ghosts through
00:08amorphous clouds. But I bet you would never be able to guess where these images were captured.
00:12These photos were recently taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, 114 million miles away on the
00:18surface of Mars. This phenomenon could never happen on Earth, and that's because of something
00:23happening high up in Mars' atmosphere. These rays of light are filtering through particularly high
00:27altitude clouds, primarily made of carbon dioxide. But that CO2 is so cold, it's actually solid,
00:33meaning these beams of sunlight are literally being diffused through dry ice.
00:37NASA says they've never captured images like this one on the red planet before,
00:41explaining about them in a statement, quote,
00:43By looking at color transitions, we're seeing particle size changing across the clouds. That
00:48tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time.
00:52Mars isn't known for its cloud cover at all, as there is little moisture left on the planet.
00:56But it's nice to know that even after all these years, our closest neighbor still has some
01:00mysteries left to be uncovered.