Curiosity spots earth in the Mars night sky

NASA JPL released an image from the Curiosity rover showing how future Mars residents will see their home planet at night:

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Sees ‘Evening Star’ Earth

Curiosity Mars Rover's First Image of Earth and Earth's MoonThe two bodies in this portion of an evening-sky view by
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity are Earth and Earth’s moon.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU
Full image and caption

The rover’s view of its original home planet even includes our moon, just below Earth.

The images, taken about 80 minutes after sunset during the rover’s 529th Martian day (Jan. 31, 2014) are available at photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17936 for a broad scene of the evening sky, and at photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17935 for a zoomed-in view of Earth and the moon.

The distance between Earth and Mars when Curiosity took the photo was about 99 million miles (160 million kilometers).

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Curiosity, visit www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , www.nasa.gov/msl and mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. You can follow the mission on Facebook at www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .