NASA’s Curiosity rover has captured a spectacular sight from the floor of Mars: The primary-ever picture of Earth alongside the Purple Planet’s moon Phobos.
Utilizing its Mast Digicam, or Mastcam for brief, Curiosity photographed Earth setting the Purple Planet night time sky whereas one among Mars’ two moons, Phobos, rises on Sept. 5. The rover’s new view, which consists of 5 quick exposures and 12 lengthy exposures, captures a rocky Martian outcrop within the foreground and an expansive sky with Earth and Phobos seen within the higher proper. An inset within the picture, which NASA shared on-line on Sept. 13, identifies Phobos on the left and Earth on the best.
“It is the primary time a picture of the 2 celestial our bodies have been captured collectively from the floor of Mars,” NASA officers mentioned in an announcement releasing the brand new picture. “From the rover’s perspective, the inset space can be about half the width of a thumb held at arm’s size.”
Phobos is known as after the Greek god of worry and is the bigger of Mars‘ two moons. Its smaller companion is known as Deimos.
Phobos orbits the Purple Planet thrice a day at a distance of solely 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) from the Martian floor, making it nearer to its main physique than some other recognized pure satellite tv for pc to a planet.
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Given its shut proximity, the moon is considered on a collision course with Mars. It is nearing the planet at a fee of six ft (1.8 meters) each hundred years, which implies that it’ll both crash into the Purple Planet in about 50 million years or break aside from Mars’ gravitational affect.
Curiosity has been exploring Mars for over a decade, having landed in Gale Crater in August 2012. The picture of Earth and Phobos was taken on the 4,295th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s mission. One Martian sol is about 24 hours and 40 minutes, making it barely longer than a single Earth day.
The rock construction captured within the foreground of the brand new Curiosity view is a butte known as Texoli situated on decrease Mount Sharp inside Gale crater. Texoli is a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014 to assist unravel the historical past of Mars.