Very Rare Images Of The Sunset & Moon Rising On Mars
The sun sets over the rim of Gale Crater as seen by NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity on sol 312 of the mission. False color added. Click image for full-resolution version. NASA/JPL-CALTECH (EDIT BY IAN O’NEILL/DISCOVERY NEWS)
The Mars rover Curiosity may have a busy schedule of exploring The Gale Crater, but that doesn’t mean it can’t stop & enjoy the view once and a while.
On June 22, Curiosity shared a series of photographs of a very alien, yet familiar phenomenon: The Mars sunset.
Mars is 34 percent further away than Earth is to the sun, Martian sunsets are certainly less bright than their terrestrial counterparts, but they are no less beautiful.
But Curiosity didn’t stop at snapping as the sun went down. Right after the sunset, (as similar here on earth,) The two martian moons rose.
Curiosity timed it just right to look up and take a series of images with its Navigation Camera at night just as Mars’ biggest moon, Phobos, scooted across the sky. A selection of the sequence of photographs are shown below.
Via Discovery News
