Astronomy news update from NASA :
Welcome to Mars, NASA Insight. Yesterday NASA's robotic spacecraft
InSight made a dramatic landing on
Mars after a
six-month trek across the inner Solar System.
Needing to brake from 20,000 km per hour to zero in about
seven minutes, Insight decelerated by as much as 8
g's and heated up to 1500 degrees
Celsius as it deployed a heat shield, a parachute, and at the end, rockets. The
featured image was the
first taken by InSight on Mars, and welcome proof that the spacecraft had shed enough speed to
land softly and function on the red planet. During its final descent, InSight's rockets
kicked up dust which can be seen stuck to the lens cap of the
Instrument Context Camera. Past the spotty dirt, parts of
the lander that are visible include cover bolts at the bottom and a lander footpad on the lower right. Small rocks are
visible across the rusty red soil, while the arc across the top of the image is the
Martian horizon dividing land and sky. Over the next few weeks
InSight will deploy several scientific instruments, including a
rumble-detecting seismometer. These instruments are expected to give humanity unprecedented data involving the
interior of Mars, a region thought to harbor
formation clues not only about Mars, but
Earth.
from NASA https://ift.tt/2FKmlzG
via
IFTTT
