Curiosity, a set of NASA 's robotic "eyes" on the Red Planet, recorded 16 minutes of so-called noctilucent clouds flying overhead on Jan. 17. These clouds, sometimes referred to as twilight clouds because they're too faint to see in daylight, appear iridescent by scattering light from the setting sun.

The iridescent cloud reveals new clues about ice formation in the Martian atmosphere (no little green men, sorry).

At the surface, Mars is a desolate, barren world with a rocky landscape, massive dust storms and extreme temperature swings. However, a rover recently captured a splash of color in the sky as rare clouds drifted overhead.

Red-and-green-tinted clouds drift through the Martian sky in a new set of images captured by NASA's Curiosity rover using its Mastcam—its main set of "eyes." Taken over 16 minutes on Jan. 17 (the 4,426th Martian day,

The Sun sets differently on Mars. Part of that is due to its distance from the star (an average of 142 million miles versus Earth’s roughly 93 million miles), but it also has to do with the planet’s atmosphere. A great example of the effects can be seen in the Red Planet’s noctilucent clouds.

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured stunning images of Martian twilight clouds, revealing iridescent dry ice formations on Mars.