NASA’s Curiosity rover for the first time clicks the ‘sun rays’ on Mars

NASA said that its Curiosity rover had successfully photographed Mars’ ‘sun rays’ for the first time.

According to NASA, the video was taken on February 2 and showed the sun’s rays dispersed across the planet’s atmosphere as dusk fell. According to NASA, they have never before seen the sun’s rays so perfectly caught.

NASA posted a sneak peek of the images the rover had taken on Twitter. In the image, the grey sky and rocky, pitch-black landscape are filled with splotches of red and green light. The sun was shining through the cumulus clouds as it descended over the horizon, and the rover photographed the scene.

The ‘sun rays’ captured are also called crepuscular rays, which is derived from the Latin word for ‘twilight’. The Martian rover captured the image while conducting the twilight cloud survey. The image will add to its 2021 observations of noctilucent, or night-shining clouds.

It was believed that the clouds are present 60 kilometres above the ground on Mars and are made of water ice. However, the latest images show the clouds hovering at a higher altitude, where it is really cold.