The Sun sets differently on Mars. Part of that is due to its distance from the star (an average of 142 million miles versus Earth’s roughly 93 million miles), but it also has to do with the planet’s atmosphere. A great example of the effects can be seen in the Red Planet’s noctilucent clouds.

Noctilucent clouds on Earth are something quite spectacular, thin structures so high that they can still catch sunlight long after sunset, making them shine in many colors during twilight – noctilucent means night-shining.

"I'll always remember the first time I saw those iridescent clouds and was sure at first it was some color artifact."

Curiosity, a set of NASA's robotic "eyes" on the Red Planet, recorded 16 minutes of so-called noctilucent clouds flying overhead on Jan. 17. These clouds, sometimes referred to as twilight clouds because they're too faint to see in daylight,