Sunset on Mars.
Discover the viral sensation spreading across the internet. Check out the community’s top reactions below.
Top Reddit Reactions
“The sun is actually white, it just looks yellow from earth.”
“The sunset on Mars is blue because the dust particles in the thin atmosphere scatter red light away and let blue wavelengths through, basically the exact opposite of why Earth sunsets are orange
EDIT: I have been corrected by /u/sgunb
“This is physically not correct. The scattering effect is called Rayleigh scattering. While you described it correctly as scattering at tiny particles which is proportional to 1/(lambda^4), thus being a much stronger effect on blue light than red light, it is not at all the opposite why Earth sunsets are red. You can compare this effect to why for example a pond appears blue because it has tiny chalk particles in the water. Earth’s sunset appears red because of light diffraction (Snell’s law), which is light bending because of the refractive index of the atmosphere. This is like the rainbow you see when you shine white light through a piece of glass. The refractive index is dependent on the wavelength. When the sun is almost set you only can see the red part of the rainbow while the others colors don’t reach the earth’s surface anymore.
Edit: One more comment. It is not correct that red light is scattered away. Rayleigh scattering is quiet the opposite. Blue light is scattered and thus reaches the observer while red light is less affected and thus continues its path in the atmosphere and doesn’t reach Mars’ surface””
“Is this off the NASA website? Trying to hunt it down as it is cool af.”