This was just released today by NASA. It is quite a humbling image from the Mars rover Curiosity, though it’s not quite the same impact as the Blue Marble image from Apollo 8, but historically significant nonetheless.
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. Earth is a little left of center in the image, and our moon is just below Earth.
Researchers used the left eye camera of Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture this scene about 80 minutes after sunset on the 529th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars (Jan. 31, 2014). The image has been processed to remove effects of cosmic rays.
A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright “evening stars.”
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project’s Curiosity rover. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover’s Mastcam.
More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.
Click for a full resolution image:
Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17936
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Truthseeker says: February 6, 2014 at 1:51 pm “I am not sure what “processed to remove the effects of cosmic rays” mean.”
I think; Cosmic rays and radiation in general cause noise specks/faults in the CCD image that you would see like dust on your monitor. They can become hard persistent faults and a permanent speck in the images.
… Selfie
About the uniqueness of life, Barrow and Tipler in The Anthropic Cosmological Principle argue we would be missed on either of two accounts; that existence depends on our perception of the Universe (the Strong Principle), or that we are members of a very small category that can’t afford any loss.
Looks almost like Mars seen from Earth
Maybe that’s just dust in the Martian wind.
I find the image exhilarating, not humbling. Speck, schmeck, we are the Earth-born. We have raised ourselves up, looked at the sky, developed ethics, invented science and have gone to the planets. We are making ourselves worthy to inherit the universe. The stars are next.
I’m proud of us, we humans, happy to be one of us, and glory in the vision we have made.
Andres Valencia says: February 6, 2014 at 2:36 pm “Thanks for the new perspective, from a Martian robot’s eye. We have sure gone far from our roots.”
Or not. It calls to my mind Robert Frosts Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, with the robot ‘little horse’ shaking its harness bells asking if there is some mistake. The poet man is put in mind of the “promises” he has to keep, of the miles he still must travel. We are not told, however, that the call of social responsibility proves stronger than the attraction of the starry woods, which are “lovely” as well as “dark and deep”.
All the UFOs that have been landing on Mars come from there, according to Nosro Sllew.
I think you can see the moon just below the Earth in the hi-res image. Just one pixel.
Mark and two Cats says:
February 6, 2014 at 1:48 pm
You are here
===========================================================================
Of course I am here. Where else would I be?
If you look close, you can see the moon too.
Gunga Din,
“Yes. Glad it doesn’t say, “A Kardasian is here.” 8-)”
In honor of ancient map makers everywhere, it should be re-labeled “Here there be Idiots”. 🙂
Doug Huffman – thank you for the cosmic ray explanation.
George McFly – that is Al Gore’s house you can see …
The thought that struck me was the effect on a colonist from earth, gazing at the sky and thinking “There is home, so far away and so small. Homesick.”
Thanks for the puns guys but Bob B at 2.35 takes #1 for now
Looks like Starry Night Backyard image.
Humble Pie In the Sky of Mars!
Am I crazy or did I catch Jupiter, Mars and Uranus in conjunction, during my last visit to Earth?
Or was my Sony Cybersomething point-and-shoot very drunk at the time?
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/kevster1346/uranusspeck.jpg
I wonder when they, UNEP, comes forward with an catastrophic anthropogenic solar influence hypothesis ?
So there is no need to go to Ganymede to make a picture of Earth.
great photo but the Earth test with arrow kinda ruined the pic for me.
Brent Seufert says:
February 6, 2014 at 2:43 pm … Selfie
That is not a selfie, this is a selfie:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/D99C0F51-C8C4-4166-8FEC77845BDC1553.jpg
We are much brighter from Saturn – or the processing was done by a HUGE proponent of the Mediocrity Principle. (:
Pat Frank says:
February 6, 2014 at 2:53 pm
…
I’m proud of us, we humans, happy to be one of us, and glory in the vision we have made.
****
You’ve got it right. There is a political and cultural group who are ashamed to be human, but they are a minority on this website.
I can’t see anything, there’s a dead pixel in my computer screen in the exact spot where the arrow is pointing at.
Here where I would get in trouble, if I were at rover control: I would work out the orbital mechanics and angles, then use the Rover to make some stone piles that described Earth’s orbit from Mars. Just to baffle some future alien scientist if we get wiped out.