Wow! Mars Probe Snaps Stunning Photo of Earth and Moon

This view of Earth and its moon combines two pictures acquired on Nov. 20, 2016, by the HiRISE digicam on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with brightness adjusted individually for Earth and the moon to indicate particulars on each our bodies. Relative sizes and distance are right. Earth and Mars have been about 127 million miles (205 million kilometers) when the photographs have been taken.

Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

A NASA spacecraft has given humanity a wide ranging, Mars-eye view of Earth and its moon.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its Excessive Decision Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) digicam to seize this new telescopic picture of our planet and its pure satellite tv for pc on Nov. 20, 2016. On the time, Mars and Earth have been about 127 million miles (205 million kilometers) aside, NASA officers mentioned.

The superb new picture is definitely a composite of two separate exposures taken to calibrate HiRISE, which is so highly effective that it is in a position to resolve options as small as three.three toes (1 meter) throughout on the Martian floor from MRO's orbital perch.

"The mixed view retains the proper positions and sizes of the 2 our bodies [Earth and the moon] relative to one another," NASA officers wrote in an outline of the picture, which was launched as we speak (Jan. 6). [See the Top 10 Views of Earth from Space]

"The gap between Earth and the moon is about 30 instances the diameter of Earth," they added. "Earth and the moon seem nearer than they really are on this picture as a result of the statement was deliberate for a time at which the moon was virtually immediately behind Earth, from Mars' perspective, to see the Earth-facing aspect of the moon."

The newly launched picture is sharp sufficient to disclose continent-size particulars on Earth; certainly, the reddish-brown characteristic in the course of the planet is Australia, NASA officers mentioned.

The $720 million MRO mission launched in August 2005 and slipped into orbit across the Crimson Planet in March 2006. For the previous decade-plus, the probe has been learning Martian geology and local weather; in search of indicators of previous water exercise on the planet's floor; offering a significant communications hyperlink between Mars floor craft such because the Curiosity rover and their handlers right here on Earth; and serving to researchers consider potential touchdown websites for future robotic and human missions, amongst different duties.

MRO occupies a roughly round orbit that retains the probe inside 155 miles to 196 miles (250 to 316 km) of the Martian floor.

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