Orbiter takes rare picture of Earth 180,000,000 miles away on Mars
Gregory Robinson
Featured Image Credit: European Space Agency
An image released from the European Space Agency (ESA) shows a rare perspective of Earth 180 million miles away on Mars.
Although pictures of Earth, the Moon, and other planets in our solar system have been captured on space exploration missions before, this particular snap is one of the most impressive yet.
The picture may look like a blurry white dot on a grainy background to the naked eye, but we can assure you this is not the case.
The snap is a shot of both Earth and the Moon from some 187 miles away on Mars.
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The ESA's Mars orbiter captured the picture while it was moving around the planet on a space exploration mission.
In the photo, the tiny little white dot is Earth, while the even fainter blob is the Moon.
The picture will likely go down in history, arriving 30 years after Earth was first described as a pale blue dot by scientist and communicator Carl Sagan.
The scientist got his inspiration from a 1990 image of Earth captured by NASA's Voyager 1, and his subsequent speech is remembered to this day.
Sagan reflected on how Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life, pointing out responsibility to be more kind to each other.
Despite that speech being more than three decades old, the ESA believes the message is as prevalent as ever.
Jorge Hernández Bernal, who is part of the Mars Express team, said last year: "On the special occasion of Mars Express’s 20th anniversary since launch, we wanted to bring Carl Sagan’s reflections back to the present day, in which the worsening climate and ecological crisis make them more valid than ever.
"In these simple snapshots from Mars Express, Earth has the equivalent size as an ant seen from a distance of 100 metres, and we are all in there. Even though we have seen images like these before, it is still humbling to pause and think: we need to look after the pale blue dot, there is no planet B."
While Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera is primarily used for observing Mars’s two moons and the stars, it was able to capture Earth and the Moon in 2023.
The images show the pair on 15, 21, and 27 May, while another look was also obtained on 2 June. This covers more than half of the Moon’s monthly orbit around Earth.