Even though NASA’s Curiosity rover is millions of miles from home, it can catch a glimpse of the blue planet just by looking up at the right time of year. NASA posted an image taken with Curiosity’s Mastcam that shows a point of light alone in the twilight sky of Mars. That’s us — Earth as seen from Mars.
The image was captured on Curiosity’s 529th Martian day (January 31st for the rest of us) about 80 minutes after sunset. Earth is the brightest object in the sky from this vantage, but it’s still 99 million miles away. If you zoom in on the image, it becomes apparent the point of light is actually two smaller ones. The brighter of the two is Earth, and the other is the moon. A human observer standing on the surface of Mars should be able to make out the individual twinkles of Earth and its satellite.
The Curiosity rover is part of the Mars Science Laboratory project, seeking to uncover the secrets of the Red Planet. The rover’s instruments are being used to characterize the geology of Mars and search for signs that the planet may once have harbored life. Curiosity is currently trundling around Gale Crater and is making its way toward Mount Sharp to investigate its distinct geology.
The rover was only slated for a two-year mission originally, but NASA changed that to “indefinite” after seeing how well Curiosity performed. That means we’ll get many more opportunities to snap fascinating images like this one, and probably do some real science too.