Nasa rover captures blue sunset on Mars

ISLAMABAD: Nasa's Mars rover Curiosity has captured stunning images of the Sun setting on the red planet, showing blue hues of the serene sundown over the Martian horizon.

The Sun dips to the Martian horizon in a blue-tinged sky in images sent home to Earth last week from Curiosity, Nasa said.

The imaging was done between dust storms, but some dust remained suspended high in the atmosphere, Science Daily reported.

The sunset observations help researchers assess the vertical distribution of dust in the atmosphere.

"The colours come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, the Curiosity science-team member who planned the observations.