vendredi 7 février 2014

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Sees 'Evening Star' Earth












NASA - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) patch.

February 07, 2014


Image above: The 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.

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 http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17936 for a broad scene of the evening sky, and at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17935 for a zoomed-in view of Earth and the moon.


Image above: The two bodies zoomed-in view of Earth and the moon view by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are Earth and Earth's moon. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU.

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 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / JPL / Guy Webster.

Cheers, Orbiter.ch