Today’s Martian Weather: Partly Cloudy
Clouds obscure the surface of Mars (NASA/JPL/ASU)
[/caption]
Changing seasons in Mars’ northern hemisphere brings a change in the weather, and the clouds have rolled in to cover part of the polar surface in this intriguing image from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft.
Mars Odyssey’s THEMIS visual imager (VIS) captured this image on Jan. 24, 2012, as it passed over the Red Planet’s northern pole during one of its 2-hour-long orbits.
Clouds on Mars have been seen before, both from orbit and from the surface. They are made up of fine water ice particles and are usually at altitudes of 10 to 15 km high. Read more about Martian weather here.
The full THEMIS scan of the area is below.
The area imaged is about 21 km wide by 73 km high (13 x 45 miles).
Image credit: NASA / JPL / Arizona State University. Hat-tip to Mr. Bill Dunford at Riding With Robots (@ridingrobots).
Recent Posts
Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?
Astronomers have only been aware of fast radio bursts for about two decades. These are…
Here’s How to Weigh Gigantic Filaments of Dark Matter
How do you weigh one of the largest objects in the entire universe? Very carefully,…
How Could Astronauts Call for Help from the Moon?
Exploring the Moon poses significant risks, with its extreme environment and hazardous terrain presenting numerous…
There Was a 15 Minute Warning Before Tonga Volcano Exploded
Volcanoes are not restricted to the land, there are many undersea versions. One such undersea…
Main Sequence and White Dwarf Binaries are Hiding in Plain Sight
Some binary stars are unusual. They contain a main sequence star like our Sun, while…
What a Misplaced Meteorite Told Us About Mars
11 million years ago, Mars was a frigid, dry, dead world, just like it is…