Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Sol (borrowed from the Latin word for sun) is a solar day on Mars; that is, a Mars-day. A sol is the apparent interval between two successive returns of the Sun to the same meridian (sundial time) as seen by an observer on Mars. It is one of several units for timekeeping on Mars. A sol is slightly longer than an Earth day.
The two Viking mission landers, Mars Phoenix, the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, InSight, and Mars 2020 Perseverance missions all count the sol on which the lander touched down as "Sol 0". Mars Pathfinder and the two Mars Exploration Rovers instead defined touchdown as "Sol 1".
Mars's average distance from the Sun is roughly 230 million km (143 million mi), and its orbital period is 687 (Earth) days. The solar day (or sol) on Mars is only slightly longer than an Earth day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. [185] A Martian year is equal to 1.8809 Earth years, or 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours. [2]
The Mars Julian sol count is analogous to the Julian Day count on Earth, in that it is a continuous numerical counting of days from an epoch. The Mars Julian sol epoch is the same as for the Darian calendar, thus Mars Julian sol 0 is 1 Sagittarius 0.
Phobos orbits so fast (with a period of just under one third of a sol) that it rises in the west and sets in the east, and does so twice per sol; Deimos on the other hand rises in the east and sets in the west, but orbits only a few hours slower than a Martian sol, so it spends about two and a half sols above the horizon at a time.
The calculation takes into account that a Mars Sol is a few dozen minutes longer than an Earth day. NASA and secondary sources provide Sol numbers, but do not always give a UTC time or any Earth time zone for the events on Mars. NASA provides photographs from the events with a timestamp in local Mars time that facilitates the calculation. See here.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
gives 4398 sols since the Mars Science Laboratory landed on Mars; This template was created for use on Mars mission pages, NASA ones in particular, which identify mission milestones based on the mission sol which begins with sol 0 on the landing date for rover and landers and the orbital insertion date for orbiters.