Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Mars' dusty skies in May and June 2018

Mars' dusty skies in May and June 2018
Mars' dusty skies in May and June 2018 This series of images, created with imagery processed by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) crew at Malin Space Science Systems, shows simulated views of the path of the epic dust storm event as it moved across the planet, darkening the Martian sky and blotting the Sun from Opportunity’s view. The storm is depicted in rusty red swaths. Opportunity and the younger, larger, roving laboratory Curiosity are placed in their approximate locations on the map. You can see in this gif how the dust storm increased in size and moves right over Oppy during the first half of June. The robot is still hunkered down where she waited out the storm. The blue dot, courtesy Mark Lemmon, MER science team member and atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute, indicates the rover’s approximate location. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)