Colorful Water Clouds Over Mars
One place where water can be found on
Mars is in clouds.
In the above picture colorful
water clouds are
visible just after sunrise in and around a maze of
canyons known as
Noctis Labyrinthus (the labyrinth of the night).
Scientists don't yet know, however, why these clouds formed, and why some stick to the
canyons.
One exciting possibility is that water sometimes
condenses in
shaded regions
of the canyons, only to evaporate into clouds when exposed to the
morning Sun.
Water in any form on the
Martian surface
might be important to sustaining life and
possible future human exploration.
Viking Orbiter 1, which visited
Mars in 1976, took the above picture.
The region shown is about 100 kilometers across.