Summary List Placement
NASA released a photo of what looks like a rainbow on Mars — but said it actually just shows a lens flare.
“Many have asked: Is that a rainbow on Mars?” the Perseverance rover’s Twitter account tweeted on Tuesday.
And it gave an answer: “No.”
“Rainbows aren’t possible here,” it continued. “Rainbows are created by light reflected off of round water droplets, but there isn’t enough water here to condense, and it’s too cold for liquid water in the atmosphere.”
“This arc is a lens flare.”
A lens flare is when light is scattered in a camera-lens system — the same phenomenon that makes the sun look as if it has lines coming out of it in photos.
The Perseverance rover did its first drive on Mars in March.
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Originally published at https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-mars-rainbow-photo-lens-flare-2021-4 on .
