Monday, May 11, 2015

What Color Are Sunsets on Mars?

Blue!

Wonder how many science fiction novels got that one wrong?



"The colors come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, the Curiosity science-team member who planned the observations. "When the blue light scatters off the dust, it stays closer to the direction of the sun than light of other colors does. The rest of the sky is yellow to orange, as yellow and red light scatter all over the sky instead of being absorbed or staying close to the sun."

You can read the whole article on the JPL site or here for a cool animation.

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