NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has photographed “clouds of dry ice” in Mars’ carbon dioxide heavy atmosphere, according to ANU cosmologist and astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker.
“We’ve only rarely have seen clouds on Mars, there’s not a lot of water on the surface, most of that is contained underneath, we’ve also seen it only at the poles,” he told Sky News.
“When Curiosity got ready to snap these clouds and … when they snapped it they realised it actually formed a little bit earlier.”
Dr Tucker said Mars, like Earth, has seasons but the clouds photographed by the rover were “earlier in the season” than usual and said the chemical makeup of the clouds differed from those on Earth.
“Most of the atmosphere on Mars is carbon dioxide, these are actually carbon dioxide clouds so it’s essentially clouds of dry ice which is kind of a really trippy thing to think about.”