The unexpected blue sunset on Mars – BBC

Editorial BBC

• May 11, 2015

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This is the first sunset captured by the NASA robot on Mars, Curiosity.

The sun sets on the horizon of Mars in a dyed blue sky.

This is the first color sunset collected by Curiosity, the rover that the agency American space, NASA has on the red planet.

Curiosity used the left lens of his camera (MastCam) to record the sunset during a night sky observation on 15 April, the day 956 Mission robot on Mars.

The observations sunset help researchers to evaluate the vertical distribution of dust in the atmosphere.

The color was graded and whites were compensated to remove artifacts from the camera.

Blue Tones

The Mastcam captures color much the same way as does the human eye, although it is slightly less sensitive to blue than we are human .

The dust in the atmosphere of Mars has fine particles that allow the blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than the colors with longer wavelengths.

Curiosity’s camera captures the colors in a similar way as does the human eye. In this case, the images were taken between dust storms. Photo: NASA.

This makes the blue tones of the sunlight remain more patents, compared with a wider dispersion of yellow and red.

The effect is more pronounced with sunset, when light passes through a trajectory longer than noon atmosphere.

The light penetrates the atmosphere

The rover Curiosity reached Mars in August 2012.

“The colors are caused by the fact that the fine powder is the correct size for the blue light to penetrate the atmosphere slightly more efficiently,” said Mark Lemmon of Texas A & M University, College Station, member of the scientific team who planned the observations Curiosity

“When the dust scatters blue light, it is closer to the sun’s path that the light of other colors.” .

As colors are perceived most dramatically in the sunsets of the Earth, the Martian sunsets makes the blue of the sky around the sun is more prominent, while during the day , sunlight highlights the tone rusty dust.