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Myles Henderson Blog: The Weather on Mars

Posted at 10:00 AM, Aug 22, 2012
and last updated 2012-08-22 11:07:35-04

As NASA’s Mars rover “Curiosity” continues to cruise the red planet, we are getting more information about the planet and the atmosphere.

This graph shows the rise and fall of air and ground temperatures on Mars obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover. The data cover Aug. 16 to Aug. 17 and were taken by the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station.

Ground temperatures vary from as high as 37 degrees Fahrenheit to as low as minus 131.8 degrees Fahrenheit, showing large temperature changes from day to night.

Air temperatures vary from as high as 28 degrees Fahrenheit to as low as minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit. The variations in air temperatures are less extreme than ground temperature variations.

NASA reports that soon we will be able to get even more weather data from “Curiosity”, including humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure, and temperature.

For more information on “Curiosity”, check out the Mars Science Laboratory.