NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captures an iridescent feather-like cloud in the Martian sky just after sunset. By studying the colors in iridescent clouds, scientists can learn about particle size within them and how they grow over time.
These clouds were captured by Curiosity as part of a seasonal imaging campaign to study noctilucent, or “night-shining” clouds. However, a new campaign in January 2025 led to Curiosity capturing a mesmerizing video of red- and green-tinged clouds drifting through the Martian sky, which can be seen below.
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Red-and-green-tinted clouds drift through the Martian sky in a new set of images captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover using its Mastcam — its main set of ‘eyes.’ Taken over 16 minutes on Jan. 17 (the 4,426th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s mission), the images show the latest observations of what are called noctilucent (Latin for “night shining”), or twilight clouds, tinged with color by scattering light from the setting Sun,” said the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
