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Press Release Images: Spirit |
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10-June-2005
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A Moment Frozen in Time
On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this
stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars.
This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the
evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit
was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the
Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. This small panorama of the
western sky was
obtained using Pancam's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer
color filters. This filter combination allows false color images to be
generated that are similar to what a human would see, but with the
colors slightly exaggerated. In this image, the bluish glow in the
sky above the
Sun would be visible to us if we were there, but an artifact of the Pancam's
infrared imaging capabilities is that with this filter combination
the redness of the sky
farther from the sunset is exaggerated compared to the daytime colors of
the martian sky. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth
is, the Sun appears
only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from
the Earth. The terrain
in the foreground is the rock outcrop "Jibsheet", a feature that
Spirit has been investigating for several weeks (rover tracks are
dimly visible leading up to Jibsheet). The floor of Gusev crater is
visible in the distance, and the Sun is setting behind the wall of
Gusev some 80 km (50 miles) in the distance.
This mosaic is yet another example from MER of a beautiful, sublime
martian scene that also
captures some important scientific information. Specifically, sunset
and twilight images
are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into
the atmosphere the martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice
clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible,
but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after
sunset. The long martian twilight (compared to Earth's) is caused by
sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant
high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises
and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are
erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell
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