Blue sunset on Mars

I haven’t posted much the last few weeks as I’ve been dealing with a lousy bad cold that came back for a second time and kept hanging on; anyway, I’ll try to catch up a bit now…

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A new video clip of a Martian sunset has just been posted, compiled from images taken in November by the Opportunity rover in Meridiani Planum, with about 17 minutes condensed into the 30-second clip. The prevalent dust in the atmosphere makes the lower sky appear reddish during the day but creates a bluish glow around the setting sun at sunrise or sunset. Quicktime and MPEG-4 video clip formats, with or without background music, can be downloaded here. Beautiful.