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Mysterious Beauty: Sunrise on Mars
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Sunrise on Mars/ NASA, JPL, University of Arizona
Although all Earth eyes, including NASA environmental satellites, are on New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav howls in, NASA's scientific instruments are hard at work throughout our galaxy. The Mars Phoenix lander captured this rare photo of sunrise on Mars above the arctic circle.
At the peak of the Martian summer, the sun doesn't rise in areas above the arctic circle. But that cycle is past, and Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager captured the sunrise on sol 90, or August 25, 2008.
Sol 90 is a significant day for Phoenix and its team. That's the day that the little probe's mission was supposed to end. However, Phoenix has been such a success that its mission has been extended through September.
If you're wondering what a sol is, it's just the way of measuring time on Mars. One sol = one Martian day. Scientists came up with a way to compute time in terms of Earth time.
Mars rotates a little bit slower than Earth does. A sol is about 39 minutes longer than an Earth day. But to compute that difference, scientists also have to take into account the sideral day (the lenght of time required to do one rotation) and the solar day, and the slight differences between the two, on both Earth and Mars.
The sol is the standard measurement they came up with. It basically spreads the extra seconds of the Martian day throughout the day.
Mars Phoenix Lander and your earth-bound humans, welcome to September and another calendar month that you didn't think you would have to explore mysterious Mars.
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