Mars exploration is expanding from the surface down into the deep interior. NASA's InSight lander launched beautifully this week, beginning its six-month journey to the Red Planet.



Unlike the rovers that traverse the landscape photographing rocks, InSight is essentially a stationary geophysical observatory. It will place an incredibly sensitive seismometer directly onto the Martian surface to listen for 'marsquakes' and use a heat probe to burrow deep into the regolith. By studying the planet's pulse and temperature, scientists hope to piece together a much clearer picture of how rocky planets like Mars, and our own Earth, originally formed billions of years ago.