Blue sunset on Mars

This stunning video of a Martian sunset was captured by the Mars Rover Opportunity. Although most movies code the Martian color scheme as red, the sunset shines blue. Find out why.

Mars is, famously, The Red Planet. The rust in the dust on its surface gives the surface a reddish-brown appearance. It vast dry, dusty expanses call to mind Earthlike deserts, in which a red-orange sun beats down on yellow sand. As a result, when we think of a Mars sunset, most think of it as blazing red.

The recent footage released by NASA shows us the exact opposite. The sun glows a cool blue as it sets in the Martian sky. It's quite an upset of perception, and it's all due to that famous red dust.

On Earth, the particles in the atmosphere scatter blue light. When a ray of light hits them, the blue wavelengths are diverted from their course and shot randomly outwards. As it moves out, it hits other air particles, and some of it scatters down to the surface of the Earth. Those standing on the surface look up into the sky, see the light that's scattered down, and say the sky is blue. Meanwhile, direct light from the sun has had all the blue wavelengths filtered out; they've been scattered all over the sky. This leaves only the wavelengths at the reddish end of the spectrum - so when people look at the sun, they see it as yellow. Towards sunset, they're looking at the sun through more filtering atmosphere, and so it grows more intensely red-yellow.

On Mars, exactly the opposite happens. The red dust in the atmosphere scatters red light, so when anyone looking around would see a reddish sky. Meanwhile, the red wavelengths are filtered out of the direct path of light from the sun, leaving light towards the bluish end of the color spectrum. Those looking at the sun will see it as blue. And very seasonal.

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[Geniusloci69]

I'm sorry, I just don't buy this 'dust scatters the red light and makes the sky appear blue' shit.

the dust isn't around all the time - u can see in many images that the air is very clear for miles, so it can't always be affecting the light spectrum thus

I think they tint the pics red so they look legit to the public as he said - it could've been filmed on any desert on Earth otherwise

[tipoomaster]

@Geniusloci69

It may appear clear but the whole planet is covered in red dust, presumably there's enough of it in the atmosphere to do this. The pictures are directly from NASA, so I'd tend to believe it.

[euanford]

i would beleive this if it wasnt made using adobe after effects speciall effects software. nasa have only got images of the sunset not a fucking video

[tipoomaster]

@euanford

Yes, they have pictures...Which they stitched together in a time lapse here. Its on their official website too, unless you think they're lying.

[euanford]

@tipoomaster yea i know it was all put together in a time lapse. sorry for your misunderstanding of what i ment

[tipoomaster]

@euanford

Uh, so what was the whole not "believing" it part about? I never said it was a video, its pretty clearly a time lapse.

[keedee]

The planet Mars does not exist! It's a lie created by our government to draw attention away from the Moon, which does exist (but we never landed there, either). So, to recap: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Sneezy, Doc, Bashful, Grumpy.

[SnakeStormTV]

poor mars. why did it have to die? : (

[VanKlaunch]

Leave it to the conspiracy "too smart for mainstream science" hoax-tards to ruin the beauty of this time-lapse... I'd find them amusing if there weren't so many of them.

[fightinside1]

you can feel the loneliness of this planet just watching this

[UpwardsFallings]

@NFSCalex It really does! lol

[standauffish]

Before you pretend to be an expert I suggest you look up Rayleigh scattering so you can understand why the sky on earth is blue and why it is also blue on mars on a clear day And no its not always blowing dust

Here is collection of images from viking A day on mars

watch?v=JipdY9irLCI

[darthroden]

Its amazing how small the sun looks on Mars when it's setting.

From Mars, the sun looks approximately 50% smaller than it does on Earth.

[lilityger19]

@Geniusloci69 all the photos taken on mars are actually in black and white. The colours you see are added in by them later.

[Griffin9857]

Brilliant :) the blue makes so much sense.

[emangamerdude6]

blue is not opposite of red its opposite is orange greens is red and purple is yellow