This
image of the martian sunset from Sol 24 shows much more colour variation
than had previously been seen. The blue colour near the Sun is not caused
by clouds of water ice, but by the martian dust itself. The dust in the
atmosphere absorbs blue light, giving the sky its red colour, but it also
scatters some of the blue light into the area just around the Sun because
of its size. The blue colour only becomes apparent near sunrise and sunset,
when the light has to pass through the largest amount of dust. This image
was taken by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder. |
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