APOD: 2021 February 19 - Mars Perseverance Sol 0

Good Red Friday morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Mars Perseverance Sol 0." A sol, or Mars-day (in contrast to 24 hours here on Earth) is the apparent interval between two successive returns of the Sun to the same meridian (sundial time) as seen by an observer on Mars. A sol is slightly longer than an Earth day (24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds). A Martian year (time it takes for Mars to complete one orbit the Sun), however, is approximately 668 sols, equivalent to approximately 687 Earth days. The sol was originally adopted in 1976 during the Viking Lander missions and is a measure of time mainly used by NASA in reference to activities on Mars.

Which brings us back to today's APOD. Perseverance landed successfully on Mars yesterday as scheduled. I'm certain this is but the first of many new photographs we will see here in the coming days. Congratulations to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team on a job well done, and a new job well started!