NASA’s Perseverance Just Captured an Image of a Blue Sunset on the Red Planet
When we imagine Mars, the nickname red planet no doubt comes to mind and the moniker is well-earned. However recently, NASA’s Perseverance Rover snapped an epic shot of a martian sunset, one that shined a bright blue rather than its iconic warm hues.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 When you imagine Mars, the nickname "Red Planet" no doubt comes to mind, and that
00:07 moniker is well earned.
00:08 However, recently NASA's Perseverance rover snapped an epic shot of a Martian sunset,
00:14 one that shined bright blue, rather than its iconic warm hues.
00:17 The image was captured on July 4th this year, and NASA says it's blue in part because
00:21 of how far away Mars is from the sun.
00:24 In fact, despite being the next planet in line next to us, it only receives half the
00:27 sunlight we get on Earth.
00:29 And Mars' atmosphere is also extremely thin, only about 1% of ours.
00:33 And Earth's atmosphere is why our sunsets look the way they do.
00:36 As the sun's light passes through thicker areas of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases
00:40 held near our planet, it causes the sun's light to change color.
00:43 On Mars, its atmospheric dust scatters light into red frequency wavelengths during the
00:47 day, but at sunset the sky glows an eerie blue instead.
00:51 And the blue glowing skies on Mars can last for several hours leading up to sunrise and
00:55 sunset as well.
00:56 Observing Martian skies during this time can help us better understand the red planet,
01:00 giving scientists a better understanding of how clouds and other weather phenomena form
01:05 and evolve over time.
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