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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What a sight it would be to see the Earth in apparent retrograde motion as seen from Mars. Of course in the doom laden atmosphere of this era,nobody has really considered the partitioning of retrogrades between the inner and outer planets in terms of cause and effect.
It can be done with modern imaging and graphics but requires people like David who have that type of spacial awareness to put the motions in context of the stellar background,the central Sun and the orbital motion of the Earth.
Oh, Bruce, at 9:01am today, that was so sweet. And Casper (at 12:56pm)….. (warm smile). People like you (and all the greathearted and or witty people above) are what make this, indeed, a
“Wonderful World” — Louis Armstrong
(Admad — your version was super-cute and had a great message — thanks for sharing! — but, for all the wonderful WUWT commenters (like you) and mod-er-ators and stellar scientists and An-th-ony! I’m posting this version…)
I love you guys!
Admad,
Hilarious, but I kept expecting a twisted punchline where the narrator got pushed just a little too far. 🙂
Charlie Johnson (@SemperBanU) says:
February 6, 2014 at 2:03 pm
We really are just a speck in the cosmos. Less than a speck.
===
I thought size didn’t matter.
That’s what I hear a lot every time some professional bellyacher grouses about America throwing her weight around on the world stage just because she can.
WOW. Am I the ONLY one who looks at that sky and asks, “Where are the stars?”
Actually, when enlarged, they appear to be visible, but ju-u-u-u-u-u-ust barely, and not very damned many of them. They are EXTREMELY DIM, and I can only see make out half dozen or so. If some are visible – and if the EARTH is so visible – I can’t reason out why the stars are so almost not there. With Mars’ thin atmosphere I am wanting to see millions of stars like on a super clear night out in the boonies.
Why would that be?
Anyone?
A comment on the Moon…
The Earth and Sun define the ecliptic, the plane of the planets. All the planets except the miniplanet Pluto are within a degree or so of the ecliptic.
So a line from the Sun, which is out of sight below the horizon, to the Earth represents the ecliptic.
The Moon should be near that line – but not often ON it.. The Moon’s orbit is tilted, so it most of the time is not on the ecliptic.
And what do we see? The Moon is shown below the Earth in the image, and slightly NOT directly below. That is a perfectly reasonable place to see the Moon, relative to the Earth.
If the Moon had been shown off to the right or left that would have been reason to accuse this of being a fake.
So the photo passes this first level of vetting. The tinfoil hat folks should not have a field day. Yeay for that!
It is interesting how far away from Eath the moon’s ‘orbit’ actually is. However, as E.M.Smith details here http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/a-remarkable-lunar-paper-and-numbers-on-major-standstill/ , the Earth and Moon are really a binary planet system with the Moon orbiting the Sun not the Earth. This picture emphasises the relationship.
Pat Frank says:
February 6, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Pat,
Amen, Brother!!! I too share real pride in our first toddling steps away from our ancestral crib.
Let’s be done with this AGW nonsense and redirect all those funds to set sail on the solar system seas and have roaring adventures out amongst the planets!
Janice Moore says:
February 7, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Janice,
When I read Pat Frank’s comment at 2:53pm, I started humming “What A Wonderful World”… and Louis Armstrong’s version is my all time fave. I cracked up, when a few comments down I saw you had already posted it!
Thanks Kiddoo,
Mac
With Aloha.
dp says:
February 7, 2014 at 5:47 pm
dp,
OK – Are you and Janice both looking into my faves playlist?!
Thanks dp,
Mac
Oooooh, Mackie! Am I glad to see you! I’ve tried to say “Hi” to several people (usually, at least two attempts per) over the past few days (“How’s it going” kind of posts) who just ignore me. What a joy to “hear” your booming, cheerful, voice. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it. Definitely a fave.
btw:(i’vebeenprayingaboutworkiseverythingok?)
And….. wasn’t it soooo wonderful that THE SEAHAWKS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! That was sooo cool. I’m still smiling. Even if you are still a Packers fan, didn’t you rejoice?
Take care,
Janice
*****************************************
@ur momisugly dp — Thank you for posting that! What a sweet version — lovely voice.
Well, Steve Garcia, rats!! Over 4 hours have passed and no one knowledgeable has answered your excellent query around 4pm today. I wish I could. Perhaps that the photo was taken “about 80 minutes after sunset” explains it? Would the brightness in the sky still be bright enough to obscure the stars? Seems like the answer would be, “No.” Then, there was this: “image has been processed to remove effects of cosmic rays.” Relevant? I HAVE NO IDEA.
So, yes, you ARE pretty special — no one else noticed (apparently) the lack of stars. I’ll admit that I didn’t even think about it.
And, YES (thank–You–Lord) there have been (oh, great, now that I’m speaking of them…. D’oh!) no nuts on this thread. They can be great entertainment, but they just don’t know when to quit. And I want to have fun teasing them, (and sometimes, I do!) but, then I feel guilty because they really believe, with all their hearts, their stuff.
LOVE your ENTHUSIASM!
J.
Anybody have an answer for Steve Garcia? (re: Q at 4:03pm today)??
(hope that helps)
This photo shows a bit more – including stars. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/pia17936-main-evening_star_annotated_0.jpg
It is common to stack and stitch astrophotographs to produce a real yet manufactured view of reality. All the elements are where they belong but not in the context presented. That means only that a real photo of Earth and a real image of the Martian sky were merged to produce an astronomically correct but photographically unlikely image. This is particularly true with color images taken with radio telescopes. Radio waves have no color including white and black, so any generated image using RT data is necessarily artificial, but scientifically correct. Ultrasonic audio cannot be heard naturally, but when the frequencies are translated to our hearing range we hear the beautiful and haunting voices of whales singing tens or hundreds of miles distant.
http://www.whalesong.net/
Thanks for all that great information, d p. Mahalo!
Mostly harmless
Does anyone know what the brightness of Earth from Mars is compared to the brightness of Venus from Earth?
I asked that last question because I wondered if it might be a partial answer to Steve Garcia’s question here. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/06/stunning-photo-earth-as-seen-from-mars/#comment-1561580
Hi (again), Gunga Din,
That is a logical hypothesis. I hope someone who knows will answer you! (I said hi to you on the US snow-cover thread)
Bye for now!
Janice
Hi, Janice.
The driveway is clear. I have a big driveway and I never did get a snowblower. But I didn’t have hot chocolate afterward. I had a Bud Light. 😎
I just wondered if the Earth from Mars is much brighter than the stars.
Have a great day!
Thanks, Gunga!
Janice
I will answer it because nobody else can.
Galileo was astonished that Copernicus figured out that Venus wouldn’t increase in brightness even when its distance from the Earth decreased and should have appeared much brighter –
http://www.masil-astro-imaging.com/SWI/UV%20montage%20flat.jpg
“For as I said before, we may see that with reason as his guide he [Copernicus] resolutely continued to affirm what sensible experience seemed to contradict. I cannot get over my amazement that he was constantly willing to persist in saying that Venus might go around the sun and be more than six times as far from us at one time as at another, and still look always equal, when it should have appeared forty times larger.” Copernicus
As the faster moving Earth approached Mars, the observer on the red planet would see phases hence there would be no appreciable change in luminosity as opposed to the view we have of Mars as its brightness increases dramatically at our nearest approach –
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031216.html
Normally I would have a platform to present these findings but as astronomy is dominated by empirical riff-raff chanting voodoo I have to content myself with an unmoderated or lightly moderated forum. There is much more to say but I would need an open thread where readers could appreciate the issues and exercise their spacial awareness faculties for a change.
My brother also asked about the distinct lack of stars, so I did a little research. This photo has been doctored to make Earth a lot brighter. Here’s the original photo: http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/msl/earth-view-from-mars-pia17936/#.UveOuXewJ0Y
Earth, the brightest object in the Martian sky, is barely even visible in the original. The answer is that all the stars are really dim (probably due to the photo having been taken at dusk).
Robert Wille says:
February 9, 2014 at 6:32 am
================================================================
Thanks.
I also wonder if it has to do with Curiosity’s cameras. I might be wrong but I doubt if they were designed to do much “stargazing”. I’d assume they were made to look down, not up.
You are all so WRONG. This is a 5p. sized piece of tin-foil stuck to the warehouse roof. There’s no ‘Martian Rover’, no Explorer; does nobody remember the fuss made over men supposedly going to the Moon, for goodness sake? That was another example of the credulity of those who wanted it to be true, and so easily disproved.
And another thing, the supposed ‘Earth’ in the faked picture is blue; why? Because, and wait for the deniers’ howls of derision, backed up with nothing but anti-science rubbish, clearly THE EARTH IS WARMER THAN MARS. You only have to look at Mars to see it is red, and therefore cooler than Earth. Here comes the real science: Red is at the cooler end of the spectrum, blue at the hotter end this proves Earth is warmer, and getting hotter all the time, than Mars.
(Do I really have to point out the obvious? THIS IS AN ATTEMPT AT HUMOUR, and no part of it should be taken literally or as a statement of fact. Nor does it necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of the author. It was cooked up in a kitchen that also contained nuts, alcohol and strange, imported ingredients such as garlic and olive oil.)