NASAIt’s the longest lasting Mars The mission sent back an unprecedented side view of a huge volcano rising above the red planet just before dawn.
On May 2nd, Odyssey spaceship was captured as sunlight crept over the horizon on Mars. Arcia MonsA towering, long, delicate volcano, holes are opened in a glittering band of greenish haze in the atmosphere above the planet.
A 12-mile volcano, almost twice as high as Mauna Loa in Hawaii, pierces a veil of mist and appears like a monument to the planet’s ancient past. space The snapshots are visually arrested and scientifically enlightened.
“We chose Alcia Mons in anticipation of the summit poking over the clouds in the early hours,” said Jonathon Hill, heading Odyssey’s camera operations at Arizona State University. statement“And that didn’t disappoint.”
Every spring, giant Mars clouds return. Scientists have found a reason.
Arcia Mons sits at the southern tip of a towering trio of a volcano known as Tharsis Montes.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
To get this view, the Odyssey had to do something that was not originally constructed. Orbiters, which have been flying around Mars since 2001, usually map the planet’s surface with their cameras pointed straight. However, over the past two years, scientists have begun to turn spacecraft 90 degrees and turn their eyes towards the horizon. This adjustment allows NASA to study how dust and ice clouds change over the season.
Masculine light speed
The image is still an aerial view, but the good view points are from the horizon, and how Astronaut You can see the Earth’s horizon 250 miles above the planet of the International Space Station. Due to its altitude, the Earth does not meet the overall field of vision. There is enough distance and perspective to see the curved edges of the planet encounter the blackness of the universe. The Odyssey flies above Mars At almost the same altitude.
Arcia Mons sits at the southern tip of a towering trio of a volcano known as Tharsis Montes. The Tarsis region has its headquarters The largest volcano in the solar system. Because the red planet has no plate tectonics, it was able to be many times larger than anywhere else on Earth.
Together, they dominate the Martian landscape, and can be covered in clouds, especially early in the day. However, not only clouds, these are made from water ice, and are different varieties from the more common carbon dioxide clouds on the planet. Arciamons is the cloudiest of the three.
Scientists have recently studied the formation of certain local clouds that occur on mountains, known as the elongated clouds of Arcia Mons. Temporary features, Stripes Southern Mars 1,100 milesSpring mornings last only about 3 hours before they disappear in the warm sunlight. It is formed by strong winds being driven down the mountainside.
According to NASA, the cloudy canopy on display in the new image of the Odyssey is Aphelion Cloud Belt. When Mars is farthest, this broad seasonal system drapes across the Earth’s equator solar.
This is the fourth side image of the Odyssey since 2023, and the first to show that the volcano is breaking through the clouds.
“We see some very important seasonal differences in these horizon images,” said Michael D. Smith, a planetary scientist at NASA, in a statement. “It gives us new clues as to how the Martian atmosphere evolves over time.”
