A blue sunset on the Red Planet Our Perseverance Mars rover has taken its first picture of a sunset! This image was captured on Nov. 9, 2021, by the rover's Mastcam-Z camera system on the 257th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. While this is the first sunset imaged by Perseverance, Our robotic explorers have been looking up at the Sun from the surface of the Red Planet since the 1970s. Vikings 1 and 2; the Pathfinder and Phoenix landers; Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers have sent back sunrise and sunset scenes. Martian sunsets typically stand out for their distinctive blue color. Fine dust in the atmosphere permits blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than colors with longer wavelengths. But this sunset looks different: less dust in the atmosphere resulted in a more muted color than average. The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS #Sunset #Space #SunsetPhotography #Mars #Solar...