14 DAY TRIAL // Mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, have just released a new image captured by the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover Curiosity from the surface of the Red Planet, showing Earth and the Moon shining bright in the night sky.
The image was collected on January 31, 2014, on the rover's 529th Martian day, or sol. JPL scientists say that the photo was collected around 80 minutes after the Sun had set at Curiosity's current location. Both Earth and the Moon should theoretically be visible from the surface of Mars with the naked eye.
The distance between our home planet and Mars was 160 million kilometers (99 million miles) when this image was taken. The science team used the left camera on Curiosity Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument to collect this view. Interferences from cosmic rays have been removed from the picture.
Curiosity, which landed on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012, is currently heading towards its main science target, a 5-kilometer (30-mile) ejecta mound at the core of Gale Crater, called Mount Sharp. As it travels, the rover is investigating any interesting outcrop it comes across, hoping to determine whether or not Mars was ever able to support life.