NASA's Perseverance rover captures never-seen-before Sun Halo on surface of Mars

American space agency NASA's Perseverance rover has captured a Sun Halo on the surface of Mars that hasnever been seen before.

Although the unique feature has been seen time and again in the skies over Earth, it was never spotted on the red planet.

As white light passes through ice crystals found in upper-level cirrus clouds, the Sun Halo is a 22-degree ring that appears due to the dispersion of light.

Givingscientists a rare view into the complexity of the Martian atmosphere, the Perseverance rover picked up the unique development happening in the skies in December last year.

Calling the phenomenon ''surprising'', planetary scientist Mark Lemmon told Space.com that he had been involved in it for a really long time and his initial reaction was that it was a false alarm.

"The halo is a ring of light 22 degrees from the Sun or Moon and is the most common type of halo observed and formed by hexagonal ice crystals," according to the University of Illinois.

While the Earth has a lower content of carbon dioxide than water in comparison to Mars, scientists confirmed that it was not dust that led to the formation of the ring on the image.

"We've got a lot of pictures that show you what kind of features you get from dust in the sky, and we know for sure that you never get a halo from that," Lemmon said.

In order to advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars, the Perseverance rover was launched in 2020 to look for signs of ancient microbial life.

Watch WION's live TV here: