PIA05041: Martian Sunsets More Than Just Pretty
This image shows the Sun as it appears on Mars throughout the day. Scientists monitor the dimming of the setting Sun to assess how much dust is in the martian atmosphere. The pictures were taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera.
 Target Name:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 
 Spacecraft:  Spirit
 Instrument:  Panoramic Camera 
 Product Size:  1600 x 1200 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05041.tif (188.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05041.jpg (68.7 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This image shows the Sun as it appears on Mars throughout the day. Scientists monitor the dimming of the setting Sun to assess how much dust is in the martian atmosphere. The pictures were taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's panoramic camera.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2004-01-10