How Long Is a Day on Mars?
A day on Mars is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. Just 37 minutes longer than ours.
That's one of the most surprising things about the whole solar system, when you think about it. Mars is half Earth's size. Sits much further from the Sun. Has a tiny atmosphere instead of a thick one. And yet it spins on its axis at almost exactly the same speed we do.
If you stood on Mars, the Sun would rise, cross the sky, and set on a schedule that felt almost identical to home — just slightly stretched. The day-night cycle is the most Earth-like thing about Mars.
The Mars Day — Called a "Sol"
Scientists have a special word for one Martian day: a sol. They use this word to avoid confusion when they're talking about Mars rovers and Earth dates at the same time. If a NASA report says "Curiosity is on sol 4500," that means Curiosity has experienced 4,500 Martian days — which is around 12.6 Earth years.
One sol = 24 hours, 37 minutes, and 22 seconds. (More precisely: 24 hours 39 minutes 35 seconds, but most people round to 24h 37m.)
That makes a Mars day 2.7% longer than an Earth day. Tiny, but enough to slowly drift out of sync with Earth time. Which leads to one of the strangest job perks in NASA history.
NASA Engineers Who Live on Mars Time
When a new rover lands, the engineers operating it actually live on Mars time for the first few months. They go to bed and wake up 37 minutes later every single day, slowly drifting their schedule around the clock until they're working when Mars is in daylight.
It's exhausting. After a few weeks, the team is showing up to work at 3 a.m. one day and 2 p.m. the next. People bring blackout curtains for their bedrooms and special "Mars watches" that tick at Martian speed. Some get headaches. Most adjust eventually. Then the mission moves to a normal Earth schedule, and the team gets to sleep again.
Among Mars rover engineers, "I lived on Mars time" is something of a badge of honor.
How Long Is a Year on Mars?
This is where Mars and Earth seriously part ways.
A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days, or about 668 sols. That's almost twice as long as a year on Earth.
If you lived on Mars, your birthday would only come around about every two Earth years. A 10-year-old on Earth would be 5 Mars years old. A typical 80-year human lifetime works out to roughly 42 years on Mars.
The reason Mars's year is so much longer is simple: Mars is farther from the Sun than Earth, so the orbit is bigger, and Mars travels slower along it. Mars sits about 228 million km from the Sun, compared to Earth's 150 million km. Each lap around takes much longer.
Mars Has Four Seasons
Just like Earth.
The reason Earth has seasons is that Earth's spin axis is tilted at about 23.4 degrees. As Earth orbits the Sun, different parts of the planet point toward the Sun at different times of year, getting more or less sunlight. That gives us spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Mars's axis is tilted too — at about 25 degrees, almost exactly the same as Earth's. So Mars also gets four real seasons, with the southern and northern hemispheres swapping roles depending on where the planet is in its orbit.
The catch is that each Mars season lasts roughly twice as long as an Earth season, since the year itself is twice as long. Spring in Mars's northern hemisphere is the longest at about 194 sols. Winter in the same hemisphere is shorter, around 154 sols. The seasons aren't all equal because Mars's orbit isn't a perfect circle — when Mars is closer to the Sun, it moves faster, and the seasons that happen during those parts of the orbit pass more quickly.
Sunrise and Sunset on Mars
This part is genuinely beautiful.
The Sun looks smaller from Mars than it does from Earth — only about two-thirds the size we see — because Mars is so much farther away. So Martian daylight is dimmer than ours. About 60% as bright. It's a bit like a hazy, overcast Earth afternoon all day, every day.
Sunrise on Mars happens in a pinkish, butterscotch-colored sky. Then, at sunset, the sky around the Sun turns blue. The opposite of Earth. (For more on why, see our page on why Mars is red.)
Curiosity and Perseverance have both photographed Mars sunsets dozens of times. They're some of the most striking images NASA has ever sent back.
What Time Is It on Mars Right Now?
That's a strangely complicated question. Mars has its own calendar system, called the Mars Year or MY calendar, that scientists use to keep track of dates. It started counting in 1955, which was Mars Year 1. We're currently in Mars Year 38.
Mars also has its own time zones (sort of), and the Curiosity rover even has a daily schedule that runs on local time at Gale Crater, where it lives. There's no single "what time is it on Mars" because, just like on Earth, the answer depends on where on Mars you mean.
Wow fact: If you set off for Mars the second you turned 8 years old, you'd arrive when you were about 8 years and 8 months old, and your tenth birthday wouldn't roll around until you'd been there for a year and a half. The Mars year is long.
The Strangest Coincidence
Out of every planet in the solar system, Mars's day length is the closest match to Earth's. Mercury's day is 59 Earth days long. Venus's day is 243 Earth days long, which is even longer than its year. Jupiter spins so fast a day there is under 10 hours. Saturn's day is about 11 hours.
And then there's Mars, just 37 minutes longer than us, like the universe was rounding to the nearest day.
It's a coincidence — Mars and Earth formed independently, and there's no physical reason their day lengths should match. But it does mean Mars feels weirdly homely in one specific way. The Sun rises about when you'd expect, sets about when you'd expect, and the day passes in roughly the rhythm you grew up with. Even if everything else about Mars would kill you in seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is a day on Mars?
A day on Mars is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. That's only about 37 minutes longer than a day on Earth. Scientists call one Martian day a 'sol' to avoid confusion with Earth days.
How long is a year on Mars?
A year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days, almost twice as long as a year on Earth. That's how long Mars takes to travel once around the Sun.
What is a sol?
A sol is the name for one Martian day — 24 hours and 37 minutes long. NASA scientists use this word to avoid confusion with Earth days when they're tracking how long their rovers have been on Mars.
Does Mars have seasons?
Yes. Mars has four seasons just like Earth, because Mars's axis is tilted at about 25 degrees — almost exactly the same angle as Earth's 23.4-degree tilt. The big difference is that each Mars season lasts about twice as long as an Earth season, because the Mars year is twice as long.
How old would I be on Mars?
Divide your Earth age in years by about 1.88 to get your Mars age. So a 10-year-old on Earth is roughly 5.3 years old on Mars. An 80-year-old has only seen about 42 Mars years.