Astronomers left red in the face after mars colour revelation

Earthlings can’t decide over what colour #TheDress is, but Martians have their own colour conundrum - turns out that the “red planet” isn’t red at all.

Photos have returned from the Mars Curiosity Rover revealing that the once mighty and proud red planet is actually a grey/ blue colour not too different from standard concrete that you would find at any building site. This begs the question: Why does Mars appear red in the first place?

To put it plainly, Mars, like an old bike left out in the rain, is rusty! The planet is covered in a film of iron oxide (the same as common household rust) believed to be deposited by volcanoes. This masks the true grey/ blue colour of Mars and produces the famous red colour we all know and love.

These findings are based on a sample extracted by the Curiosity Rover at the Telegraph Peak site, situated at the base of Mount Sharp where the rover landed in 2012. The sample at this location had a surprising amount of silicon present, an observation that hasn’t fully be explained yet. Therefore the true composition of the rock on Mars (Once you wipe off the rusty red coating) is very similar to that of the Earth’s crust.

So I ask you the reader to spread the word, and stop Mars from masquerading around in its false red jacket!

#Space #Mars #Physics #StephenThornley