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Scientists get colored photo of Martian clouds

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Scientists get colored photo of Martian clouds


17.10.2017

ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSISScientists have got one of the first colored photos of the Martian clouds, RIA Novosti informs. It was transmitted to the Earth by ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). The space ship took a photo some time after it arrived at the Red planet. It happened a year ago in October 2016.

The space mission should fulfill two tasks. One of them is descent of Schiaparelli demonstrator module to the Meridian plateau located by the Martian equator, which ended up with a crash.

Now the second task is being executed, which is placing TGO into a stable orbit.

Apart from scientific questions, it is planned to connect the Earth, European Mars Exploration rover Pastor with Russian landing platform with help of this orbiter. They will be launched to Mars in three years.

Currently the orbiter is passing through a long procedure of negative acceleration to slow down and get to the calculated trajectory. Before it began, TGO took pictures of the Mars surface and checked the operation modes of all its scientific tools.

The orbiter was on a roll during this checking operation: at the end of last November, it managed to take a photo of Martian clouds. According to scientists, they consist of the smallest ice crystals. Studying these clouds will help understand where the Martian water and atmosphere have gone.

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