If you think sunrises on Earth are amazing, wait until you see one on Mars.
This stunning view comes from NASA’s InSight Mars lander, which snapped images of the Martian sunrise on April 10.
“I’ll never tire of sunrise on Mars,” NASA officials wrote in the lander’s “voice” in a Twitter post Wednesday (April 13). “Each morning, that distant dot climbs higher in the sky, giving me energy for another round of listening to the rumbles beneath my feet.”
As if the image wasn’t enough, the InSight mission team combined several of InSight’s sunrise photos into a short timelapse of daybreak on the Red Planet and included it in the Twitter post.
Related: Photos of NASA’s InSight mission to Mars
I’ll never tire of sunrise on Mars. ☀️ Each morning, that distant dot climbs higher in the sky, giving me energy for another round of listening to the rumbles beneath my feet. https://t.co/QB4uVOBLAP pic.twitter.com/61dZe75k2IApril 13, 2022
InSight (short for “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport”) is a stationary Mars lander designed to study marsquakes and the interior of the Red Planet. The lander touched down in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars in November 2018 and is currently in an extended phase after completing its primary mission of one full Martian year (about 687 Earth days) studying the Red Planet.
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In January, a massive dust storm on Mars forced InSight to slip into a protective “safe mode” when its solar arrays were unable to generate enough power to perform its science mission. The lander recovered by Feb. 15, NASA officials said at the time.
Currently, InSight is expected to continue its science mission on Mars into the summer and end its mission for good in December, NASA officials have said.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
