In pics: NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft reveals beautiful views of Mars

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) explorer has shared new views of Mars in two ultraviolet photos taken at totally different factors whereas orbiting across the Sun. The US house company says that the pictures will assist scientists acquire perception into the Martian environment and look at floor options in exceptional methods by viewing the planet in ultraviolet wavelengths.

As revealed by NASA, MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument obtained these world views of Mars in 2022 and 2023 when the planet was close to reverse ends of its elliptical orbit.

The IUVS instrument measures wavelengths between 110 and 340 nanometers, exterior the seen spectrum. To make these wavelengths seen to the human eye and simpler to interpret, the pictures are rendered with the various brightness ranges of three ultraviolet wavelength ranges represented as crimson, inexperienced, and blue.

The first picture was taken in July 2022 through the southern hemisphere’s summer time season, which happens when Mars passes near the Sun. The summer time season is attributable to the lean of the planet’s rotational axis, just like seasons on Earth.

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Image Credits: NASA/LASP/CU Boulder

In the picture, Argyre Basin, one in all Mars’ deepest craters will be seen at backside left full of atmospheric haze (depicted right here as pale pink). While the deep canyons of Valles Marineris seem at high left full of clouds (coloured tan on this picture).

The southern polar ice cap can be seen at backside in white.

The second picture is of Mars’ northern hemisphere. It was taken in January 2023 after Mars had handed the farthest level in its orbit from the Sun. In the picture, one can see an abundance of white clouds because of the quickly altering seasons within the north polar area.

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Image Credits: NASA/LASP/CU Boulder

The deep canyons of Valles Marineris will be seen in tan at decrease left, together with many craters. Ozone, which seems magenta on this UV view, has constructed up through the northern winter’s chilly polar nights. It is then destroyed in northern spring by chemical reactions with water vapor, which is restricted to low altitudes of the environment at the moment of yr.

For these unaware, MAVEN spacecraft was launched in November 2013 and entered Mars’ orbit in September 2014. The mission’s purpose is to discover the planet’s higher environment, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and photo voltaic wind to discover the lack of the Martian environment to house. The MAVEN workforce is getting ready to rejoice the spacecraft’s tenth yr at Mars in September 2024.

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Updated: 25 Jun 2023, 11:26 AM IST

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