NASA shows Perseverance’s first trip to Mars
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover performed its first ride on Mars. The space agency showed images of the rover’s wheel tracks on the surface of the Red Planet on Friday. (March 5)
AP
The claim: An image from 2021 shows the ‘first’ sunset captured on Mars
Following reports that NASA’s Perseverance Rover touched the surface of Mars on February 18, many fake images and videos claiming to depict the landings appeared on social media.
One report claims that it now displays the first image of a sunset on Mars.
‘First ever photo of the sunset on Mars. 2021 ‘, reads a Facebook message of March 13 with more than 1,900 shares and more than 100 responses. The alleged Mars sunset image with blue colors accompanies the text.
Many users shared their comment on the photo in the comments they wrote: “Extraordinary!” “Spectacular!” and “Looks just like in the movies.”
The same allegation recently went viral on Twitter, where it was shared on March 12 tweet which had more than 1,200 likes and more than 300 retweets before apparently being removed. In the answers, the user credited another Facebook post with nearly 3,000 shares as the source of the image.
In a message to the US TODAY, the Facebook user pointed to the article from Argoonautas.com on July 22nd. The article contains the photo and claims that it is the most recent image of the sunset taken on Mars.
USA TODAY contact the other Facebook user for comment.
Fact check: Viral video does not reveal sights, sounds of Mars from Perseverance Rover
Image is an illustration
A reverse Google search for the image reveals that the photo taken in the claim is actually an illustration of a sunset on Mars created by Mark Garlick. It is part of the Science Photo Library and available via Getty Images.
“Illustration of a sunset on Mars. Dust and small particles hanging in the Martian atmosphere scatter light in the direction of the Sun ahead,” reads the caption of the illustration. “It creates a blue halo around the setting Sun, representing a Martian landscape that is completely different from its Earth equivalent. It is the same process that takes place on Earth, except that Mars’ atmosphere is much thinner.”
On Earth, blue light is scattered across the sky during the day, while the blue color is visible on Mars only at sunset and sunrise, due to the thin atmosphere of the planet, according to the caption of the image.
The sunset illustrations are also available on other sites including Fine Art America and Science Photo Library.
Garlick, a freelance illustrator, writer and computer animator specializing in earth sciences, technology, astronomy, space and science fiction, shared his illustration with other artwork from Mars on December 3, 2018 on Twitter.
USA TODAY earlier unearthed images claiming to come from space that are actually illustrations.
Fact check: Viral photo of Earth, Venus and Jupiter from Mars is not real
Image of sunset on Mars in 1976 captured
According to Space.com, NASA officials said the Viking 1 lander was the first to hit the sun on the surface of Mars on August 21, 1976.
On June 14, 1978, Viking 2 captured a sunrise on Mars and since then, both sunrises and sunsets have been recorded by Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity Rovers and other missions, according to a 2019 statement from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“It is easier to see details in the raw versions, but the latter shows the images more accurately as the human eye would see them,” the statement read. “Farther from Mars than it is from Earth, the sun appears to be only about two-thirds the size it sees when seen from Earth.”
In the statement, Justin Maki, co-researcher and imaging leader of the InSight science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said it was a ‘tradition for Mars missions to capture sunrises and sunsets’.
The blue color seen in the photos of the sunsets is the result of the dust in Mars’ atmosphere. Fine particles let the blue light push through the atmosphere more effectively than longer wavelength colors like yellow and red, according to Cincinnati.com.
NASA’s website states that the science team sometimes obtains photos of sunset and dusk to see how high the atmosphere is protruding the dust and to search for ice or dust clouds.
Fact check: Heavily edited viral image of the solar surface was not taken by NASA
Our rating: false
An image claiming to show the first sunset on Mars is FALSE, based on our research. The image used in the reports is an illustration created by a computer animator and illustrator specializing in astronomy. The first image of the sunset on Mars was captured in 1976 by Viking 1.
Our sources for fact checking:
- Getty Images, visit on March 16, Sunset on Mars, illustration
- Fine Art America, October 21, 2019, Sunset on Mars
- Science Photo Library, visit on March 16, Sunset on Mars, illustration
- Mark Garlick, December 3, 2018, tweet
- Markgarlick.com, Visited March 16, About: Biography
- USA TODAY 24 December 2020 Fact Test: Viral photo of star is an illustration and was not taken by the Hubble Telescope
- Space.com, May 2, 2019, sees a Mars Sunrise (and sunset too!) In beautiful NASA InSight photos
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, May 1, 2019, InSight captures sunrise and sunset on Mars
- NASA Mars Exploration Program, visit on March 16, Viking 1 & 2
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory Photojournal, 28 February 1997, Sunset at the Viking Lander 1 Site
- Cincinnati.com, May 13, 2015, Why the Sunset of Mars is Blue and the Sunset of the East Is Red
- NASA.gov, March 23, 2008, Sunset on Mars
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