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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Photo: "Diamond Dust" Snow Falls Nightly on Mars


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The Phoenix Mars Lander took video of its onboard LIDAR weather probe, which shoots a laser beam into the atmosphere (left) and records light reflected from dust and clouds.

LIDAR data from Phoenix (seen at right in an animation still) have revealed that water-ice crystals fall nightly in winter from high, thin clouds over the north pole, according to a July 2009 study.

Left still from video courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University/CSA; right still from video courtesy Koji Kuramura, NASA