Sunrise and sunset on Mars as seen by the NASA InSight module
(ORDO NEWS) — On November 26, 2018, a stationary NASA InSight module was landed on the Martian plain of Elysium , which settled on the Red Planet in order to study its bowels.
The craft is still operational, but the InSight team believes it will “go to sleep” by the end of this year as its solar panels, its sole source of power, are irreparably contaminated.
Sunrise and sunset on Mars
On April 24, 2019, InSight transmitted two gorgeous images to Earth that allow us to get better acquainted with phenomena such as sunrise and sunset from the surface of the Red Planet.
So the first picture (below) was taken at about 5:30 AM Martian time. The sun reluctantly rose over the frozen desert, illuminating it with a meager light.
Please note that from the surface of Mars, the luminary looks much smaller than from the surface of our home planet.
On that day, April 24, 2019, the distance from Mars to the Sun was approximately 239,356,593 kilometers, and the distance from Earth to the Sun was 150,465,538 kilometers.
The next image (even lower) was taken at about 6:30 pm, when the Sun, escaping below the horizon, filled the planet’s sky with a cold blue.
This shot has been lightly color-corrected to accurately capture how you would see the sunset if you were at the InSight site that day.
Both images were taken with the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) mounted on the vehicle’s robotic arm.
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