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Drifting Martian clouds just before sunrise, captured by NASA's Perseverance Mars on March 18, 2023. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) From the lush green forests and vibrant oceans of Earth to the barren red deserts of Mars, the contrast between these two neighbouring worlds is stark. But every now and then, we stumble across some uncanny similarities that remind us how these planets are peas of the same pod that is our solar system. Now, one such instance has been brought to us all the way from the Red Planet, by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. Using one of its navigation cameras, Percy recently managed to capture pictures of drifting clouds just before sunrise — a scene that sounds very familiar, but is completely otherworldly (quite literally!). The series of images were photographed on March 18, 2023, during the 738th Martian day of the mission. Their raw beauty aside, these clouds are also of research interest for scientists on both the Perseverance mission and NASA's Curiosity rover mission. At present, the teams are actively studying the formation process of Martian clouds. Interestingly, clouds on the Red Planet share a similar granular pattern as the clouds on Earth. But owing to Mars' dry and arid environment, its clouds tend to have a dusty composition as opposed to the watery make-up on Earth. Studying Martian geology, climate and astrobiology — including hunting for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet — is a key objective for Perseverance's mission. And as more sols (Mars days) pass, Perseverance will persevere in its quest to set the stage for human exploration of Mars, sending us wonderful scenes from an alien world in the process. ** For weather, science, and COVID-19 updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store). It's free!