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The beautiful photos of Mars were taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft. The ESA spacecraft has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2004, offering scientists an unparalleled view of Mars. In the last batch of photos from Mars, the probe crossed the north pole of Mars, where ESA said that "regional dust storms" were being prepared. These dust storms are common on the sterile planet and can sometimes reach the entire planet.
The ESA said in a statement: "Local and regional storms that last a few days or weeks and are confined to an area of call are commonplace on Mars, but can reach the planet in its state on more severe, the planet for several months.
"It is currently spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars and water ice clouds and small dust-lifting events are frequently observed along the seasonally retreating ice sheet.
Last year, a planet-sized dust storm hit the red planet. NASA's Solar Appliance Opportunity is dead.
NASA unplugged the remote robot in February 2019, citing the dust storm as the main cause of Opportunity's malfunction.
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However, the images of ESA on Mars reveal a much more pleasant and falsely quieter view of the storms on Mars.
In the photo above, the green tinted dust storm takes a swirling form caused by an effect called Coriolis.
In addition, if you look closely at the left side of the photo, you will see two mountain peaks: Olympus Mons and Elysium Mons.
ESA said: "The spiral shape of the storm stems from the deviation of air masses due to the rotation of the planet, a phenomenon known as Coriolis force.
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"This effect is also observed on the Earth, where low-pressure areas of the northern hemisphere – cyclones, for example – have a clockwise spiral shape."
Storms on Mars, however, are considerably lower than those experienced here on Earth.
This is attributed to the lower atmospheric pressure of the red planet, which is less than 1% of that of the Earth.
And according to ESA, the wind speed on Mars is also generally less than half that observed on Earth.
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Between May 22nd and June 10th, ESA's Mars Express witnessed at least eight different storms at the edge of the Polar Ice Cap.
All the storms took shape quickly and disappeared just as quickly, in the space of one to three days.
ESA said: "These regional dust storms only last a few days; the high dust is transported and dispersed by the world traffic in a fine mist in the lower atmosphere, located between 20 and 40 km altitude.
"Some traces of dust and clouds remained in the volcanic province until mid-June."
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