A recent image taken by NASA’s Perseverance Rover appears to show a breathtaking rainbow on Mars. The photo has caused mass speculation online, as scientific evidence shows that there should be no rainbows on Mars.
On earth, rainbows appear when sunlight meets the right atmospheric conditions, in which the light strikes and reflects off individual water droplets in the atmosphere.
However, given the cold, thin, and dry atmosphere of Mars, the chances are unlikely to be the image of a real rainbow.
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Reddit users have speculate that it can be a ‘dust arc’, with the reflection caused by dust rather than water droplets.
Further speculation on the website comes from a 2015 “Ask me anything” with NASA team members in which chief scientist Rich Zurek of NASA’s Mars program office said it was possible that ‘ice arcs’ could appear on Mars, because although there are no water droplets, snow has been observed at the poles.
The theory that supports most, however, seems to be that the ‘rainbow’ was caused by an artifact that caused random light rays to penetrate and scatter randomly within the lens, similar to a ‘lens flare’ in your typical camera.
It is supported by Dave Lavery, the program manager for exploration of solar systems at NASA, who told Forbes, ‘Definitely not a rainbow. … These are just internal reflections in the camera lens. ‘
“The rover is almost north of the helicopter, so around 14:00 the camera is looking at the local solar time of Mars almost straight south when these photos were taken,” he said, adding that these are the most important conditions for stray light to interfere with. the camera’s optics.
Whatever the cause, it’s definitely beautiful.
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