Look! NASA Reveals Image of Earth and Moon Photographed From Mars

The Earth can be photographed by various cameras and satellites located in the near-Earth orbit (NEO). It is very rare, however, to see photographs of Earth taken from another planet. NASA recently released a stunning photo of the planet taken from Mars. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the amazing photograph last November 2016 perfectly capturing the planet and the moon.

By using the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), the orbiter captured the composite image of the planet with the moon from Mars. The individual images were first processed and then combined together to produce the final output.

The Earth and moon are depicted in their actual sizes. "HiRISE takes images in three wavelength bands: infrared, red, and blue-green. These are displayed here as red, green, and blue, respectively," a NASA official said in a press release.

The colors in the image are presented in the same way that vegetation appears red in NASA photos. Australia is predominantly red; thus. it is easily seen in the center of the planet. Southeast Asia also appears reddish while Antartica is very visible from the bottom of the planet. The other bright spots are the clouds in the atmosphere.

Mars was about 127 million miles (205 million kilometers) from the planet when the image was taken. The image can be downloaded for free on NASA's website and is available in different sizes and resolutions. Although stunning, this is not the first time the Earth and the moon were photographed from Mars. HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also took the same image in October 2007.

In this version, the moon is found on the upper left of the image and the Earth is on the lower left side of the photo. Mars was about142 kilometers from the planet when the photo was taken. South America is the dominant feature of the planet that is visible in this photo.