See the first clear images of 'sun rays' on Mars in eerie new NASA photos

[Judi Lynn]

By Harry Baker published 1 day ago

The rays appear when sunlight shines through gaps in the cloud during sunrise or sunset and have never been seen this clearly on the Red Planet before.



An iridescent cloud snapped by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Jan. 27. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA's Curiosity rover recently snapped a stunning shot of dazzling "sun rays" shining through unusually high clouds during a Martian sunset. It is the first time sun rays have been clearly visible on the Red Planet.

Curiosity captured the new image on Feb. 2 as part of a series of twilight cloud surveys that have been ongoing since January and will end in mid March. The photo, which is a panorama comprising 28 individual images, was shared by the Curiosity rover's Twitter page on March 6.

"It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars," team members from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wrote in a statement(opens in new tab).

Sun rays, also known as crepuscular rays, occur when sunlight shines through gaps in the clouds during sunsets or sunrises when the sun is below the horizon. The rays are most visible on Earth in hazy conditions, when the light scatters off smoke, dust and other particles in the atmosphere, according to the U.K. Met Office(opens in new tab). Although the dazzling beams appear to converge at a point beyond the cloud, they actually run near-parallel to one another.



A close-up of the sun rays seen by Curiosity on Feb. 2 (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

More:
https://www.livescience.com/see-the-first-clear-images-of-sun-rays-on-mars-in-eerie-new-nasa-photos

[Timeflyer]

1. Humans on earth can see sunset on another planet--are we lucky humans or what?

Beautiful, like opals.