See NASA's super soothing view of clouds rolling across Mars - CNET

NASA's InSight lander has a nice view of the Martian sky.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Sometimes it's nice to just take a moment and enjoy the blissful sight of clouds tumbling across the sky, even if you happen to be on Mars. NASA's InSight lander got a particularly lovely view of some fluffy Martian clouds this week. Check out this GIF of them rolling along.

Paul Hammond, a citizen scientist known for processing NASA images from Mars machines, put the GIF together from a series captured by InSight and tweeted it on Thursday. NASA makes InSight's views of the Red Planet available as raw images in a gallery online.

InSight arrived on Mars in November 2018 to study the planet's interior, which includes listening for marsquakes. It's also giving us an insider's look at its rocky, dusty and distant home on Elysium Planitia, a broad plains area near the equator.

InSight already sent back a gloriously ghostly sunset view. Hammond's cloud sequence makes Mars feel closer than ever. You can see parts of the lander and the round dome covering its seismometer. Those are the best hints that this isn't Earth.

For more Martian cloud coverage, check out this grainy Curiosity rover look from 2017.

InSight's relaxing view of the sky might tempt you to book your next vacation to Mars, but don't be fooled. The latest Mars weather report from Elysium Planitia shows a high of -3 Fahrenheit (-19 Celsius) and a low of -145 Fahrenheit (-98 Celsius). I'll just watch those Mars clouds from afar, thank you.

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