For the first time during the Phoenix mission, the sun was seen to set just below the horizon. This image shows the sun rising on sol 90 (August 25), at 51 minutes past midnight. As on Earth, the sun does not set during the Martian summer at this latitude (equivalent to northern Alaska on Earth). With the season changing to fall now, sunrises and sunsets will now occur, even if only for short periods of time. The “night” before this sunrise lasted only 75 minutes!

On a related note, it is now the end of the primary 90-day mission, but the lander continues to operate in excellent health, now going into its extended mission phase through September. As noted previously, in the coming months though, with Martian winter approaching, the landing site will gradually become covered in a deep layer of ice and snow as the northern polar ice cap expands...

Posted by Paul Scott Anderson on August 26, 2008 at 9:28 pm