This is what the Earth and Moon look like from Mars – DW – 07/14/2023

Rarely do we get the chance to view our planet and its moon from the perspective of another world, and this time, the experience is completely new. Thanks to the orbiter From Mars european space agency, mars express, Now we can marvel at the pictures of the Earth Captured from Mars On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its launch.

While this may not be the most impressive image ever seen from space – since you can simply see a tiny white dot intersect with another, smaller white dot -, the Mars Express image reveals the enormous distance separating Earth from the Red Planet and highlights the impressive achievement. For the admiration of placing vehicles on the surface and orbit of our planetary neighbour. In addition, it reminds us of the fragility of our planet and the responsibility humanity has to protect the only place we know to be home to life.

Earth is unique. There is no planet B

33 years ago, when the Voyager 1 spacecraft was on its way out of the solar system, it turned around one last time and took what would become a defining image of our planet. “This is here. This is our home. This is us,” said Carl Sagan, who was instrumental in taking that photo, when it was first published.

Marking the special 20th anniversary of the Mars Express since its launch, we wanted to bring Carl Sagan’s ideas to the present, where the climate crisis and the worsening environment make them healthier than ever. indicates in a statement Part of the team behind the image is researcher from the University of the Basque Country Jorge Hernandez Bernal.

“In this simple snapshot from Mars Express, Earth the size of an ant seen from 100 meters away, and we’re all there. Although we’ve seen images like this before, it’s still hard to think: we have to take care of the pale blue blob, there’s no such thing as Planet B”.

300 million km from Earth

Exactly 20 years ago, Mars Express took the first planetary image (below the mantle and on the mantle), which was also of the Earth and the Moon, taken from a distance of 8 million kilometers as it headed toward Mars. Now, the new images are coming to us from a distance of 300 million kilometers, after completing more than 24,000 orbits around the Red Planet.

The image sequence was obtained by the ultra-resolution channel (SRC) of the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), which is primarily used to observe the two moons and stars of Mars, according to the press release.

Good with ESA, The images show the Earth and Moon on May 15, 21, 27, and June 2, 2023. They add that this covers more than half of the moon’s monthly orbit around Earth.

“These images are of no scientific value, but as conditions allowed us to pilot the HRSC to Earth and shortly thereafter the VMC to Mars, we took the opportunity to create our own image of home in on this amazing Mars Express mission achievement,” says Daniela Tersch, Mars Express team member. HRSC at the German Aerospace Center, DLR.

Edited by Felipe Espinosa Wang.