Mars Rover Discovers Martian Clouds Made By Gravity Waves
NASA said that galaxies don't freely drift in the space. The presence of gravity organizes them into groups called galaxy clusters. Galaxy clusters can be tens of millions of light-years wide or larger, and that makes them as the biggest structures in the universe. Just like the Martian clouds that Mars rover recently spotted.
Mars rover recently spotted clouds which were shaped by the gravity waves. According to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, it includes the first ground-based view of the Martian clouds. The shots are considered as the best record which was made by the mysterious recurring belt of equatorial clouds which influences the Martian climate.
A planetary scientist named John Moores from the York University in Toronto, Canada said that understanding these types of clouds like the Martian clouds will help them estimates the ground ice depth as well as secure the slope lineae and the flows of the salty water on the surface.
The observations of the scientists seem to constrain the fine-grained models of the Martian clouds. The clouds were built in the past through the limited information, and the cloud videos captured by the Mars rover are not just ordinary pictures.
NASA scientists have known information about the Martian clouds through the help of the orbiting spacecraft and the Phoenix lander. These two spacecraft took several skyward snapshots during its 6-months mission in 2008.
According to Science Mag, the planet was able to support multiple regimes of Martian clouds depending on the elliptical orbit despite the whisper-thin atmosphere. Through the use of the curiosity's navigation camera, the scientists were able to record eight-frame movies of the Martian clouds bet for two Martian years.
The researchers used the two angles to capture the Martian clouds. The first angle pointed directly up to see the wind direction and the speed. The second angle which keeps the rover's horizon in the frame monitors the cloud's depth.