The Earth and Moon as seen from Mars. New NASA images
The image was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (MRO) high-resolution High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera installed on the probe. The published photograph is actually a combination of twoóch images. NASA used such a ploy because the Moon is much darker than the Earth and in a photograph where the Earth is perfectly illuminated only its outline would be visible.
Australia can be seen in the photo of Earth – red spot in the middle – As well as a portion of southeast Asia – slightly higher on the left side of the planet. The white outline at the bottom is Antarctica.
The photo was taken on November 20 last year. The probe took them while at a distance of 205 millionóin a kilometeróin from the Earth. In the photo, the moon appears to be close to our planet, but in reality it was behind the Earth from the point of view of the MRO.
