February 20, 2012
NASA/JPL-Caltech - MER Opportunity - Credits for the additional process. and color.: Elisabetta Bonora and Marco Faccin/Lunar Explorer Italia/IPF
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How would it be if we were on Mars and look at the Sunrise? Most likely (and just forgetting for a moment about the lack of O2 and the intense cold we would experience, unless we used some efficient and well warmed-up Space-suits) we should see what this beutiful GIF-Movie shows us quite well: the Sun (whose size would be approximately one-third smaller than the apparent size we perceive when we look at our Parent Star from Earth) would emerge from the fog and dust of the lower Martian Horizon, and then become more and more white and brilliant as it rises up in the Sky of the Red Planet. And what about the average illumination of the Martian Surface? Of course, we cannot be one-hundred-percent sure, but it seems relatively certain that Mars is not (unless a massive Dust Storm would occur or unless we stand in the middle of a Polar or Presso-Polar Region during the Martian Winter) a "dark place" (like Titan, for instance), but rather a Planet with a substantially luminous Sky, from quite some time before Dawn, until way after Sunset. But the question that is really puzzling us, though, is the actual color of the Martian Sky, when seen in full daylight. NASA People say that the Martian Sky's color is butterscotch (such as a very light yellow, with white reflections), but then they show us picture of the Martian Sky that, according to them, have been colorized in "Natural" or "Approxinately True" Colors, and which show us a Sky whose color is anything BUT butterscotch. And so, where is the Truth? The Truth is that, most likely, no one knows for sure yet, and the only thing a Scientist or a Researcher can and should do, is to make some logical, rational and credible assumption, and then build a consistent theory (and relevant colorization) after it. And that is, in fact, what we do. In the Future (probably a very distant one), when a Human Being shall walk somewhere on the Red Planet and then stand still and look up at the Sky, we will know. But until then... As far as the cause of the now unquestionable fact that there is a persistent luminescence in the Martian Sky since some time before Dawn and until way (two or even more hours) after Sunset, we can only say that the Scientists who have been studying this unusual (for us) phenomenon, believe that it his to be attributed to a number of different factors, the most important ones being the presence, in the Martian Atmosphere (from medium/low to very high altitudes), of huge amounts of suspended and highly reflective and microscopic Dust and Water-Ice particles. We believe, as IPF, that this hypothesis - until some new data is acquired - should be correct. The frames forming this GIF-Movie have been colorized in Natural Colors (such as the colors that a perfect human eye would actually perceive if someone were on the Surface of Mars and then looked towards the Horizon, while the Sun rises), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically emproved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team. |
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