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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 basic time periods from which the calendar is constructed are the Martian solar day (sometimes called a sol) and the Martian vernal equinox year.The sol is 39 minutes 35.244 seconds longer than the Terrestrial solar day, and the Martian vernal equinox year is 668.5907 sols in length (which corresponds to 686.9711 days on Earth).
Remarkably, the 37-sol period also accidentally almost divides several time quantities of interest at the same time. In particular: One Martian year is approximately equal to 18 × (37 sols) + 2.59897 sols; Two Earth-Mars synodic periods are approximately equal to 41 × (37 sols) + 1.176 sols
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]
From one day to the next, the view of the Moon would change considerably for an observer on Mars than for an observer on Earth. The phase of the Moon as seen from Mars would not change much from day to day; it would match the phase of the Earth, and would only gradually change as both Earth and Moon move in their orbits around the Sun. On the ...
[3] [25] Several depictions of enlightened Martians have a religious dimension: [8] in the 1938 novel Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, Martians are depicted as Christian beings free from original sin, [3] [25] the Martian Klaatu [a] who visits Earth in the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still is a Christ figure, [32] [63] [64] and ...
Direct teleoperation of a Mars rover is impractical, as the round trip communication time between Earth and Mars ranges from 8 to 42 minutes and the Deep Space Network system is only available a few times during each Martian day . [1] Therefore, a rover command team plans, then sends, a sol of operational commands to the rover at one time. [1]
On the first sol (Martian day), the rover immediately discovered thousands and thousands of small (4–6 mm diameter) spherules lying all over the place inside Eagle Crater. Figure 2 shows a thumbnail of the view from Opportunity's Pancam (panoramic camera) on the first sol. (The actual image is very large, 7838 x 2915 pixels).