A beautiful Martian sunset is pic o’ the day here at the ol’ raincoaster blog.

Click here for the whole gallery of Mars Phoenix images from NASA

And here is an entertaining video of the whole liftoff-to-landing process. Alas, unlike the last one (possibly the world’s coolest Mars probe simulation) there is no NIN soundtrack. Just sing Closer really, really loudly as you watch.

Developed in the summer of 2004, this animation visulaizes launch in August 2007 and entry, descent, and landing of the Phoenix Mars Mission in May 2008. Currently the animation is in the rough-cut phase and is being modified as the spacecraft develops. The animation was created by Maas Digital under the direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Solar System Visualization Project.