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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00:00When you imagine Mars, the nickname Red Planet no doubt comes to mind, and that moniker is
00:08well earned.
00:09However, recently NASA's Perseverance rover snapped an epic shot of a Martian sunset,
00:14one that shined bright blue rather than its iconic warm hues.
00:17The image was captured on July 4th this year, and NASA says it's blue in part because of
00:22how far away Mars is from the sun.
00:24In fact, despite being the next planet in line next to us, it only receives half the
00:28sunlight we get on Earth.
00:29And Mars' atmosphere is also extremely thin, only about 1% of ours.
00:33And Earth's atmosphere is why our sunsets look the way they do.
00:36As the sun's light passes through thicker areas of oxygen, nitrogen, and other gases
00:40held near our planet, it causes the sun's light to change color.
00:44On Mars, its atmospheric dust scatters light into red frequency wavelengths during the
00:48day, but at sunset the sky glows an eerie blue instead.
00:51And the blue glowing skies on Mars can last for several hours leading up to sunrise and
00:55sunset as well.
00:56Observing Martian skies during this time can help us better understand the red planet,
01:00giving scientists a better understanding of how clouds and other weather phenomena form
01:05and evolve over time.