The halo on Mars appears as a circle within 22 degrees of the Sun and is observed in cold and cloudy weather.
The Perseverance rover has spotted a solar halo on the Red Planet. This is the first case of registration of this phenomenon outside the Earth. Reported by GeophysicalResearchLetters.
According to scientists, it was created by crystalline particles of a water-ice cloud in the form of hexagonal columns, up to more than 11 micrometers in length and diameter. Crystals are first found at altitudes of 40-50 km, and during observation they can descend to altitudes of 3-12 km.
It was discovered that the halo, or bright ring around the Sun, was seen in images taken by Perseverance’s cameras. Such halos are common in icy clouds on Earth, but have never been seen on Mars.
A team of planetary scientists led by Mark Lemmon from the Space Science Institute in Boulder reported the first recorded solar halo on Mars on the morning of December 15, 2021. The observations were conducted for 3.3 hours using the camera of the NASA rover, operating in the Lake Lake crater near the planet’s equator.
Thus, the researchers concluded that halo-forming clouds on Mars are relatively rare due to the necessary high level of supersaturation in water, but may become common in the northern subtropical regions of the planet in the middle of summer.
NASA
It was previously reported that the James Webb telescope produced the first images and spectra of Mars.
NASA’s spacecraft is taking new pictures of the surface of Mars
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Source: korrespondent
