Space
On Mars, sunsets glow blue. NASA's Curiosity rover photographed its first color sunset there on April 15, 2015, from inside Gale Crater.
ILLUSTRATION · AINASA's Curiosity rover recorded its first color sunset on Mars on April 15, 2015, and the glow around the setting Sun was blue.
Curiosity captured the view at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol, from its location in Gale Crater, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says.
Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that let blue light penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That keeps the blue light closer to the Sun's part of the sky. The image was calibrated and white-balanced, and the rover's Mastcam sees color much as human eyes do.
SourcesEvery claim traced
- Tier 2 · Secondary2015
Advertisement
Keep reading
More facts
Space
A six-sided storm pattern circles Saturn's north pole. The hexagon spans about 20,000 miles and is a jet stream of 200-mile-per-hour winds, NASA says.
Verified2 min
Space
Daytime on Mercury can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit. With no substantial atmosphere to hold that heat, nights can plunge to minus 290 degrees, NASA says.
Verified2 min
Space
The Moon is shrinking. As its interior cools, it has gotten more than about 150 feet skinnier over the last several hundred million years, NASA says.
Verified2 min