The shaking didn’t stop there. By
the end of September, InSight had felt a
whopping 174 seismic events. The quakes
fell into two distinct categories: 24 had
low frequencies, indicating they were
traveling through Mars’ deeper mantle,
while the rest were smaller and had
distinctly higher wavelengths, a sign they
were propagating close to the surface.
But the data collected by the InSight
lander doesn’t just reveal seismic activity
— it’s also shedding light on Mars’
magnetic field. NASA scientists were
surprised to find that the localized mag-
netic field around InSight is 10 times
stronger than expected based on satellite
observations. “This indicates that there
are magnetized rocks that lie beneath
the InSight landing site,” said mission
co-investigator Catherine Johnson of
the University of British Columbia.
The mission hasn’t been a complete
success, however. One crucial instru-
ment, a heat probe called the “mole,”
was designed to hammer itself down
16 feet (5 meters) below the surface to
reveal details about how rocky planets
form. Instead, it’s been stuck for the last
year. Teams of engineers around the
world have worked with earthbound
replicas of the spacecraft to test hacks
that could free the instrument, but the
mole keeps bouncing out of its hole.
Scientists and engineers aren’t giving
up just yet, though. NASA expects
InSight to continue operating for
about another year. And in addition
to collecting more data on the seismic
and magnetic activity of Mars, one of
the main objectives for the lander’s
remaining mission is to get the mole
digging again. — ERIC BETZFOUR-WAY COMPETITION
NASA has selected four possible
proposals to explore the solar
system. TRIDENT would venture to
Neptune’s moon Triton, VERITAS
would map Venus’ surface, DAVINCI+
would analyze the venusian
atmosphere, and IVO would assess
volcanic activity on Jupiter’s moon Io.ALTERNATE TAKE
An international team of
astronomers has simulated galaxy
formation without using dark
matter. The success potentially
overcomes a long-standing
challenge for a controversial theory
called MOND, which claims dark
matter doesn’t exist.FREE THINKER
Physicist Freeman Dyson — who
proposed that sufficiently advanced
aliens would likely build “Dyson
spheres” around their home stars to
power their civilizations — died
February 28 at age 96.BAD BREAK-UP
A new study led by a University of
Warwick researcher revealed that
giant stars nearing the end of their
lives can release radiation so intense
it causes orbiting asteroids to spin
fast enough that they break apart.ADDING A LINE
To prepare for future Moon and
Mars missions, NASA broke ground
February 11 on a 112-foot-wide
(34 meters) radio antenna in California
that will bolster the capabilities of the
Deep Space Network, which is
used to communicate with
interplanetary spacecraft.THE BIGGEST BOOM
In February, astronomers
announced the universe’s most
powerful explosion discovered to
date: an eruption from a
supermassive black hole some
390 million light-years away. The
blast released about five times
more energy than the previous
record holder. — JAKE PARKSQUICK
TAKE SWWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 9At least one star in the sky has found beauty in death. This image, captured by the
Gemini South Observatory, showcases the planetary nebula known as CVMP 1, located
about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Circinus. The planetary nebula is
one of the largest known, and is the outcome of a main sequence star that blew off
its outer layers as it puffed up into a red giant. This cosmic wonder won’t have a long
lifespan, though. Its hourglass shape will only last about 10,000 years. Within that time,
the central star lighting the massive cloud will cool down, causing the hourglass to
fade from view. — HAILEY ROSE MCLAUGHLIN
A celestial hourglass
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