Blue sunset – on Mars

Now this is cool … its a 30 second movie of sunset on Mars. We normally tend to think of Mars as Red, so why all the blue? Well yes indeed, dust particles do normally make the Martian sky appear reddish, but they also (as can be seen) create a bluish glow around the sun.

So how was this actually made, just how real is it?

Its very real, the sunset movie, is composed of exposures taken Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, 2010, through different camera filters, and accelerates about 17 minutes of sunset into a 30-second simulation.So what you see, is not an actual movie, its a collection of still images that have been combined together (but then if you think about a movie reel, thats what that is … so its a debatable point)

One of the filters they used is specifically there to look at the sun. Two other filters used for these shots provide color information. The rover team has taken Pancam images of sunsets on several previous occasions, gaining scientifically valuable information about the variability of dust in the lower atmosphere. The new clip is the longest sunset movie from Mars ever produced, taking advantage of adequate solar energy currently available to Opportunity.

Enjoy …

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