AstronomyPicture of the Day—20190123

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019January 23

InSight Lander Takes Selfie on Mars

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Explanation: This is what NASA's Insight lander looks like on Mars. With its solarpanels, InSight is about the size of a small bus. Insight successfully landedon Mars in November with a main objective to detect seismic activity. Thefeatured selfie is a compilation of several images taken of different parts ofthe InSight lander, by the lander's arm, at different times. SEIS, theorange-domed seismometer seen near the image center last month, has now beenplaced on the Martian surface. With this selfie, Mars InSight continues a longtradition of robotic spacecraft on Mars taking and returning images ofthemselves, including Viking, Sojourner, Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity,Phoenix, and Curiosity. Data taken by Mars Insight is expected to give humanityunprecedented data involving the interior of Mars, a region thought to harborformation clues not only about Mars, but Earth.