NASA’s Perseverance Captures Rare ‘Blue Sunset’ on Mars: Understanding the Physics Behind It

2023-10-13 06:02:48
NASA’s Perseverance Martian spacecraft captured the strange and rare “blue sunset” over the horizon of the Red Planet. The US space agency indicated that the spacecraft obtained the image on its 842nd Martian day, last July 4, using its navigation camera located On top of the vehicle’s mast that helps drive it. As the dark red sky began to darken, the adventurous robot turned the left navigation camera to the hazy horizon. With one shot, he got an image of a stunning sunset, with the Red Planet’s sky glowing a wonderfully cold, eerie blue. The Perseverance image shows the sun setting on the Martian horizon, glowing in an eerie, cool bluish-green. It’s an image that sheds more light on the physics behind strange sunsets, the physics of light scattering on the Red Planet, and how it contrasts with a similar phenomenon on Earth. On Earth, when different wavelengths of sunlight enter the atmosphere, they are scattered by tiny particles including This includes gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor, as well as other particles. During the peak of the day, when the side of the planet is closest to the sun, blue light – which travels in shorter wavelengths – spreads far and wide, making the sky appear blue during this time. However, during sunrise and sunset, sunlight travels a greater distance in the atmosphere. This scatters light of shorter wavelengths, including violet and blue, leaving only orange and red light reaching the eyes. Mars’ atmosphere is known to be very thin (regarding 1% of Earth’s), and the Red Planet is farther away. 50% from the sun from the earth. Sunlight interacts with large, iron-rich dust particles on the surface of Mars, compared to oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide on Earth. This dust scatters low-frequency red light during the day, giving the Martian sky its distinctive red color. And at sunset, when the light has a distance in front of it. Longer to cut, the red light dissipates, painting the sky a cold blue. Follow us on social media Related articles
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