Explanation:
On planet Earth, an analemma
is the figure-8 loop
you get when
you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day
throughout the year.
But similarly marking the position of
the Sun in the Martian sky would produce the simpler,
stretched
pear shape in this digital illustration,
based on the Mars Pathfinder project's
famous Presidential Panorama
view from the surface.
The simulation shows the late
afternoon
Sun that would have been
seen from the
Sagan
Memorial Station once every 30
Martian days
(sols) beginning on Pathfinder's Sol 24 (July 29, 1997).
Slightly less bright, the simulated Sun is only about two thirds
the size as seen from Earth, while the
Martian
dust, responsible for
the reddish sky of Mars, also scatters some blue light around
the solar disk.
