The
midnight sun seems to track across the martian sky, as seen by
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander on July 20, 2008.
The
solar images were taken between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., local solar time, during 11 nights
on Mars. The sun's path dipped slightly over the northern horizon during this
time and caused a lack of smoothness to the curve.
Phoenix
took the images using its Surface Stereo Imager. The panorama resembles time-lapse
photos taken above the Arctic Circle on Earth, emphasizing Phoenix's polar
location on Mars. The lander has already directly sampled
water ice on the Red Planet for the first time, and may have uncovered
tantalizing evidence regarding the potential
for life.
Please click here for the full image.
— University of Arizona and SPACE.com
Staff
Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
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