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Martian Sunset

Martian Sunset
Martian Sunset The Sun sets on another exciting and productive day on Mars for the Pathfinder lander and the Sojourner rover. Pathfinder's camera collected this picture on Sol 24, the 24th Martian day of the mission. The blue and red of the sky are about the same as they would appear to the human eye, but the Sun itself is overexposed—it would appear nearly white or slightly blue. As the spacecraft landed on July 4, 1997, thousands celebrated at Planetfest '97, a festival of exploration sponsored by The Planetary Society. There Tony Spear, Pathfinder project manager, announced that the lander had been named the Carl Sagan Memorial Station and that it had carried the names of 100,000 Society members to the Martian surface. JPL / NASA