NASA releases first-ever view of Earth from the surface of Mars
theweathernetwork.com
Friday, February 7, 2014, 12:30 PM -
To the applause of everyone on Earth, NASA has released the first-ever view of our planet from the surface of Mars.
Take a look at the picture above. It was taken by the rover Curiosity in January, about 80 minutes after sunset on January 31, 2014.
Researchers snapped the shot using the rover's mast camera.
"This view of the twilight sky and Martian horizon taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes Earth as the brightest point of light in the night sky," wrote NASA on their website. "Earth is a little left of center in the image, and our moon is just below Earth.Two annotated versions of this image are also available in Figures 1 and 2." (See below).
The Curiosity Rover has been actively exploring Mars since it landed there on August 6, 2012.
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The rover recently ran into some trouble when its pathway became blocked by a metre high sand dune. NASA engineers were able to cross the drift in a risky maneuver earlier this week.
More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.
Files from NASA and CNN
Figure 1 (Image: NASA)
Figure 2 (Image: NASA)
