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Picture of the day -
December 20, 2006
A Martian Sunset
Photo courtesy of
NASA.
I have featured many spectacular sunsets as "Pictures Of The
Day", but none of them were quite as interesting and unique as this one.
Why? Because this sunset was literally out of this world!
In January 2004, the twin Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and
Opportunity landed on the surface of the red planet for what was
intended to be a 90 day mission. Well, it's now almost three years later
and these robotic geologists and photographers are still going
strong, making this one of the most successful missions in the
history of space exploration.
Spirit and Opportunity have treated us earthlings to thousands of
high resolution images that have piqued our curiosity about our most
earth-like neighbor and helped answer numerous questions that have
nagged man for centuries, but today's picture of a Martian sunset is
my favorite by far because it looks so much like a sunset back here
on earth! Now we know how the setting sun will look to the first
human explorers that set foot on Martian soil in the not-so-distant
future!
About the photo: The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit
captured this amazing image of a Martian sunset on May 19, 2005. The
rough-looking feature in the foreground is the rock outcropping "Jibsheet"
which Spirit explored for several weeks. In the distance lies the
floor of the Gusev crater with the sun beginning to slip behind the
crater's far wall some 50 miles away. Since Mars is farther from the
sun than earth, the setting sun looks about 1/3 smaller than it
would on our planet.
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