August '20

And so we thought we would get some inspiration from a place where the phenomenon of sunsets is no less captivating, even though the place is not exactly a vacationer’s heaven.

It is a wonderful sight, especially from the dunes of the Libyan desert, when the sun bids us farewell for the night, showing us flavors of red and orange through its magical Rayleigh scattering. The temperature, which reaches 50 °C throughout the day, turns the enjoyment of this view into a celebration of the fact that the observer is still alive.

As far as humidity is concerned, though, Libya is a true aquapark when compared to the Atacama Desert in Latin America. The Atacama sunset is simply breathtaking. And we literally mean breathtaking: together with the completely dry air, the thin atmosphere caused by the high elevation makes this mountain plateau an excellent candidate for testing out technologies developed for the colonization of Mars.

We could consider the blueish hue of the sunset on the Red Planet to be a form of outer space exoticism, in large part due to the omnipresent dust particles and the fact that the Sun appears to be about 40 % smaller there than when observed from the Earth. One could also not sigh over that unsatisfying evening view, since 96 % of the atmosphere is formed by carbon dioxide and the night temperature can fall even below minus 100 °C, which could result in the otherwise hard-to-achieve pulmonary frostbite. So, we thought to myself, isn’t the celestial afterglow we can observe from home the prettiest sight in the universe?