2023-06-26 01:42:18
The planets in our solar system go through seasons because of the way they tilt in their orbits, so one hemisphere faces the sun more at some times of the year than others. However, another factor that also affects the weather and conditions on some planets is their location in their orbit around the sun. The Earth has a relatively circular orbit, so the differences from being a little closer or farther from the sun at different points are very small. But Mars’ orbit is more elliptical than Earth’s, which means conditions vary depending on when the planet approaches the sun. This effect is evident in two images of Mars recently released by NASA, which show the planet at its closest point and farthest from the sun. Captured by a Mars orbiter called MAVEN, or Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, the images were taken six months apart in July 2022 and January 2023 respectively, showing how the planet’s environment changes with both the season and the planet’s orbit, Digitartlends reported. This first image was taken during the summer season in the planet’s southern hemisphere, when Mars was at its closest point to the sun. The image was taken with Maven’s Imager Ultraviolet Spectrophotometer (IUVS), which operates in the ultraviolet wavelength. So to create an image, the values from the tool must be converted to the visible light range. This helps identify key features of the image such as atmospheric ozone appearing purple, which is also why the planet’s surface appears green in some places, even though the actual planet appears red or orange when photographed in the visible wavelength of light. At the bottom of the planet you can see the Antarctic ice cap, which has shrunk in the relatively warm summer weather. This second image, showing Mars’ northern hemisphere, was taken when the planet passed its farthest point from the sun. You can see the bright purple ozone cap across the entire north pole. This ozone is formed during the winter months when sunlight breaks down carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and when spring arrives, ozone interacts with water vapor and is destroyed. MAVEN is used to study the Martian atmosphere and weather, and has previously looked at how water vapor is absorbed by the polar ice caps during the summer and how this is affected by the large dust storms that cycle periodically across the planet.
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