NASA educates Captain Kirk on weird blue light in Mars InSight photo
William Shatner from Star Trek asked the question on Twitter. Spoilers: it's not aliens.
"No cause for alarm, Captain!" That's what NASA's InSight mission team reported on Twitter Wednesday.
William Shatner, Captain Kirk from Star Trek , had a pressing question for the space agency about a strange glow seen in an image from Mars.
"What is the shiny bluish light to the right?" Shatner tweeted after seeing a NASA GIF showing the InSight lander's seismometer settling into position on the surface of the Red Planet.
What is the shiny bluish light to the right? 🤔 https://t.co/beFpRbNrKx
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) January 16, 2019
The blue light appears in quite a few of the images the lander has sent back. NASA offered this explanation: "Just a bit of lens flare as the sun dips low on the horizon." The photos used for the seismometer GIF were both taken shortly before sunset.
Just a bit of lens flare as the sun dips low on the horizon. (Both photos were taken shortly before sunset.) No cause for alarm, Captain! https://t.co/5s2Lv9CeGr
— NASA InSight (@NASAInSight) January 16, 2019
The lens flare explanation inevitably led to a mention of director J.J. Abrams, famous for his use of lens flare in sci-fi movies.
JJ was there...😏 https://t.co/NQyH4y15Zf
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) January 16, 2019
InSight landed on Mars on Nov. 26, 2018 and has settled in to study the planet's interior, including taking stock of marsquakes with its seismometer. NASA hopes to learn more about how rocky planets are formed.
The eye-catching blue lens flare is just one more item in a long line of strange Mars sightings that actually have innocuous explanations. Last year, the Curiosity rover spotted a piece of "foreign object debris" that turned out to be a rock and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped a picture of Pac-Man that was caused by a sand dune in a crater.
The InSight team has been tweeting in first person as though the lander itself is composing the messages, which makes the exchange between Captain Kirk and the Mars machine all the more endearing.
