Dawn on Endeavour Crater

(Here to usher in a new year of earthbound explorations is this extraterrestrial sunrise on Endeavour Crater, captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on February 15, 2018, or sol 4,999. Image courtesy of NASA. Source.)

Sol 587

(Sunset over Gale Crater captured by the Curiosity rover on sol 587, or April 1, 2014. Images courtesy of NASA / JPL / MSSS / Don Davis. Source.)

Another Dawn on Chryse Planitia

(Another dawn on Chryse Planitia to kick start another year. This sunrise was photographed by the Viking 1 Lander on August 25, 1977, or sol 391. Here's the sunrise on sol 379. Original images courtesy of NASA. Source.)

Sunset on Gale Crater

(Here then is my traditional capstone image to what unexpectedly turned out to be a very sparse blogging year. This particular Martian sunset was observed by the Curiosity rover from Gale Crater on sol 312, or June 6, 2013. Images courtesy of NASA. Source.)

Dawn on Chryse Planitia

(The sun cocooned in its gauzy spaceship rising over Chryse Planitia, as photographed by the Viking 1 Lander on August 13, 1977, or sol 379 after touchdown. Image created using the original 12e188.blu, 12e188.grn and 12e188.red files from NASA's Viking Lander EDR Image Archive.)

Sunset on Chryse Planitia

(Per tradition, here's a photograph of a Martian sunset to cap off another year. It was taken by the Viking 1 Lander on August 20, 1976, from its Chryse Planitia landing site. Image created using the original 12a240.blu, 12a240.grn and 12a240.red files from NASA's Viking Lander EDR Image Archive.)

Sunrise

(We've ended the past three years with a Martian sunset, so why not also usher in each new year with a Martian sunrise? We'll start with this one captured by the Viking 2 Lander on June 14, 1978, at its Utopia Planitia landing site. Happy New Year! Image courtesy of NASA/JPL. Source.)

Another Sunset

(Another Martian sunset to close out another year. This one, topped off with a plumed coronet of scattered light, was captured in 1997 by the Pathfinder lander on Sol 24. Silhouetting the horizon on the left are the two hills nicknamed Twin Peaks. Source.)

Blue Sunset

(Video courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Texas A&M.)

We ended last year with one of our favorite photos of the decade: an extraterrestrial sunset photographed in 2005 by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. We thought we'd end this year with another Martian sunset. This one was captured last month by Spirit's twin, Opportunity, in a series of photographs, which the rover science team combined and enhanced to create a seamless simulated descent. A bonus footage included in the embedded video above shows the moon Phobos passing in front of the sun.

Watch it with music here.

Sunset

(Not wanting to let an entire month go by without a post, here's a shot of a picturesque sunset on Mars, one of our favorite photographs of the decade, captured in 2005 by one of the best contemporary landscape photographers, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell.)