NASA has released an image of the Earth and Moon taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.
The NASA photo, which was initially taken on October 3, 2007, has been published on the agency’s official Twitter account. “Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter obtained a sight of Earth and moon,” NASA tweeted in response to the post.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter caught this glimpse of Earth and the Moon. Each of our seven robots now working at Mars is really a #NASAEarthling, acting as our eyes as they explore the Red Planet – deepening our understanding of and appreciation for our blue one. pic.twitter.com/7QaMBFoV9y
— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) April 22, 2022
The Earth is obscured by clouds in the NASA image, while the moon seems to have little detail. According to NASA Mars, Earth was 142 million kilometres (88 million miles) away from Mars at the time the image was taken, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometres (88 miles) per pixel.
“The phase angle is 98 degrees, it implies that less than 50% of the Earth’s and moon’s discs are illuminated directly.” NASA added.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched from Cape Canaveral in 2005 to locate liquid water on Mars’ surface for an extended period of time.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter began searching for the origin of water on Mars with its science equipment after a seven-month journey to Mars and 6 months of orbital maneuvers to reach its scientific orbit.
Using the equipment, scientists can take extreme close-up pictures of the surface of Mars, analyze minerals, search for subterranean water, track how much dust and water is dispersed in the atmosphere and track daily weather patterns.