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SUNSET ON MARS
Every day on Earth, the Sun sets. This isn't because the Sun is sinking, but because Earth rotates. Part of Earth spins around so that it is not facing the Sun, while on other parts of Earth, the Sun is rising. When it is the middle of the afternoon in England, it is the middle of the night in Australia! The same thing happens on all the other planets in the Solar System. Every morning on Mars, the Sun rises in the East, and every evening, it sinks to the West. The picture above shows a Martian sunset. We can see how small the Sun appears on Mars and compare it with how big the Sun is on Earth. This shows us that Mars is much further away from the Sun than Earth is. On Pluto, the furthest planet away from the Sun, the Sun appears only as a small bright star.
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In these two pictures, we can compare the different sunsets on Earth and Mars. The sky surrounding the Sun on Earth appears orange, but on Mars it appears blue. This is because very small dust particles in the Martian atmosphere appear blue when they reflect sunlight. When the Sun is lower in the sky, there are more bits of dust for the light to get through, so it appears blue. We can also see the different sizes of the Sun on each planet. A day on Mars lasts for 24 hours and 37 minutes, just over half an hour longer than a day on Earth.
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SUNSET ON MARS |
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