If you spend enough time on the surface of the Red Planet, you will be treated to something very different from Earth - a blue sunset as night falls. That's exactly what happened to NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover after waiting for three years to catch a glimpse of this phenomenon.
The images of the blue sunset were taken on April 15, but were sent back to Earth in black and white, but Damia Bouic from the Planetary Society was able to recreate the colors to create a truly stunning view seen on Mars.
During the sunset on Earth, the sky often turns a deep orange, but on Mars it can turn a deep blue, and while the surface of Mars is usually a deep reddish color, it is this dust that makes the setting of the sun appear blue.
However, Dr. John Bridges, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester who studies Mars, says that the cameras on the rover may not be conveying a truly accurate image.
"We do have to be a little careful with the color produced by the cameras on this rover as they are a false color image. What is very striking though is how much smaller the sun appears compared to here on Earth."
"Taking images like this can teach us a great deal about the atmosphere on Mars. Most of the dust is in the troposphere, which is about 40 kilometers up on Mars. There is a lot of effort to find out how high up dust clouds can get up on Mars - particularly after some cloud-like plumes were spotted that appear to be much higher in the atmosphere than we thought dust can go."
Scientists say that sunsets on Mars would have a more blue looking hue to them compared to here on Earth. That is because the red dust in the atmosphere filters out much of the red light from the sun. As the sun dips lower in the sky, the light has to travel through the lower layers of the atmosphere where the dust is even thicker.
On Earth our atmosphere scatters blue light instead of red, leading to the impressive red and orange colors that decorate the sky at sunset.
This isn't the first time NASA has shown the world what a sunset on the Red Planet looks like, releasing a video in 2010.
Because of its distance from the sun, on the surface of Mars the sun is about five eights the size that it is when viewed here on Earth. The red planet also receives just 40 percent of the light we get here, making the sky appear much darker as the sun begins to set. The average length of the Martian day is about 24 hours and 37 minutes.
Scientists periodically snap images of the sunset to help them determine how high into the atmosphere the dust billows.
