Sunset on Mars

Every day on Earth, the Sun rises and sets. This is caused by the fact that Earth rotates on its axis. As it spins, the view of the sky from Earth changes. The Sun is visible during the day, the Moon visible during the night. What you can see at any particular time is dependent on where you are in the world. If its daytime in Australia, it is night Europe. Every single day since the Earth came into existence, the Sun has risen and set, and this will continue until Earth's last day. The same thing happens on all the other planets in the Solar System.

Over on Mars, each morning begins with the Sun rising 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 appears from Earth. This shows us that Mars is much further away from the Sun than Earth is. On Neptune, the furthest planet away from the Sun, the Sun appears only as a small bright star.

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.