PIA10976: Midnight Sun on Mars


Midnight Sun on Mars

Caption:

This panorama mosaic of images was taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on board NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. This mosaic documents the midnight sun during several days of the mission.

The foreground and sky images were taken on Sol 54, or the 54th Martian day of the mission (July 20, 2008). The solar images were taken between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., local solar time, during the nights of sols 46 to 56. During this period of 11 sols, the sun's path got slightly lower over the northern horizon, causing the lack of smoothness to the curve. This pan captures the polar nature of the Phoenix mission in its similarity to time lapse pictures taken above the Arctic Circle on Earth.

Background Info:

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Photojournal Note: As planned, the Phoenix lander, which landed May 25, 2008 23:53 UTC, ended communications in November 2008, about six months after landing, when its solar panels ceased operating in the dark Martian winter.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Phoenix
Instrument Host Phoenix Lander
Host Type Lander
Instrument Solid-State Imaging (SSI)
Detector
Extra Keywords Grayscale
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2008-07-23
Date in Caption 2008-07-20
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10976
Identifier PIA10976