i heard that the sun will rise from the west on the 30th of july 2008 on planet Mars

[Maria Bianchini]

until the end ofseptember is it true?

[ahmedelhamahmy]

I am also heard that...
space.com/spacewatch/mars_retrograde_030725.html
here were it comes from

ciao

[timebuster]

That's fascinating. I've never heard this before.

[EVERYTHING]

does this mean, the sun will rise west for earth too?!?!

[Carlos_dfc]

That report on space.com is from 2003, around the time of opposition - and the term 'retrograde' does not mean that Mars will spin in the oipposite direction, making the Sun rise from the opposite horizon.

Retrograde - is all to do eith the relative orbital dynamics of Earth and Mars (or any other planet)
As the planets orbit - the inner ones orbit quicker than those further out - so every so often the inner one will 'overtake' the outer one.
I'll use Earth and Mars as the example from now on, (because Mars is the subject of the OP) the same principle applies to all planets, only the time-frames differ.

As we all know, Earth orbits the sun in a period of 1 year - Mars is further out than Earth, and takes a little over 2 years to orbit the Sun - so, once every 2yrs 2months (usually - but it varies a bit), Earth passes Mars on the inside, so-to-speak.
As seen from Earth, the position of Mars, as seen against the background stars, usually travels in a west-east direction - but as Earth overtakes Mars, due to the angle we are looking at Mars - it's direction in the sky appears to stop, then go the other direction (retrograde) for about 3 months, then when Earth has passed Mars, and we recede away from it, then the motion of Mars will eventually stop it's retrograde motion, and revert to heading west-east until the next opposition .

As I said further up - all planets further out than Earth, exhibit this behaviour - only the time-frames differ.
And if you were on Venus or Mercury - looking at Earth - the Earth would also have periods of retrograde motion.

The Sun never rises from the wrong side of the horizon on Earth - so why would it happen on Mars?

Answer - it doesn't