Red and green 'twilight clouds' spotted over Mars
The rare clouds have only been seen on Mars a few times in recent years, and are helping scientists unravel the mysteries of the alien atmosphere.
NASA's Curiosity rover taking a picture of itself on Mars. (Photo/NASA/JPL)
At the surface, Mars is a desolate, barren world with a rocky landscape, massive dust storms and extreme temperature swings. However, a rover recently captured a splash of color in the sky as rare clouds drifted overhead.
Colorful noctilucent clouds were spotted in the Martian sky on Jan. 17 as NASA's Curiosity rover pointed one of its cameras up during twilight. These types of clouds form high in the atmosphere and can only be seen before daybreak or after sunset.
"Sometimes these clouds even create a rainbow of colors, producing iridescent, or 'mother-of-pearl,' clouds," NASA said. The colors in the new images are faint and were created as the clouds scattered light from the sun akin to a prism.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured these drifting noctilucent, or twilight, clouds in a 16-minute recording on Jan. 17, 2025. The white plumes falling out of the clouds are carbon dioxide ice that would evaporate closer to the Martian surface. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/SSI)
Twilight clouds are a rare sight on Mars. The Pathfinder mission first saw them in 1997, and Curiosity has photographed them only a handful of times over the past six years.
Noctilucent clouds also form high in Earth's atmosphere and are most commonly seen in the summer months near the planet's poles.
Scientists are still working to solve the mystery behind the colorful twilight clouds on Mars, including where and how they form since the planet's atmosphere is much different from Earth's.
"Each sighting is an opportunity to learn more about the particle size and growth rate in Martian clouds. That, in turn, provides more information about the planet’s atmosphere," NASA said.
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