The analemma taken on Earth (left) and the analemma taken by the Mars exploration rover Opportunity. /Courtesy of Tunc Tezel, NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU/TAMU

If you mark the position of the sun at the same time every day for a year, a curve shaped like the number '8' appears. This is called an 'analemma.' The left image tracks Earth's analemma, created by combining wide-angle digital photographs taken over one year from December 2011 to December 2012. However, the shape of the analemma varies depending on the eccentricity of the planet's orbit and the tilt of its axis, so each planet has a different shape of analemma.

For example, let's look at Mars. The red planet Mars has a similar axial tilt to Earth, but its orbit around the sun is much more eccentric than Earth's, meaning it is less circular. Because of this, the analemma seen from the surface of Mars is closer to a teardrop shape. The analemma in the right image is composed of photographs taken by the Mars exploration rover 'Opportunity' from July 2006 to June 2008, which corresponds to one year on Mars in Earth time.

Both planets have their respective summer solstice and winter solstice at the top and bottom ends of the analemma curve. The summer solstice in the northern hemisphere of Mars in 2025 was on May 29, while the northern hemisphere summer solstice on Earth in 2025 is at 2:42 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on June 21.