Mars Curiosity Rover Sends Never Before Seen Image Of Earth And Venus

Humanity has taken some major leaps in the field of space exploration in the 20th and the 21st century.

From sending the first man to the moon to having a full-fledged space station orbiting the planet to sending the very first rover on the Martian surface, humans have pushed several boundaries.

NASA

Curiosity rover is known to be one of the most successful missions executed by NASA. Mars Curiosity rover was supposed to last for two years, but even after eight years on the Red Planet it still continues to send data from our solar neighbour.

And now, the NASA Curiosity Rover has sent across a very unique set of images captured through its Mastcam that shows Earth and Venus in a never before seen avatar, as pointed out by NASA.

NASA

The images were captured by the Mastcam pointed up to the sky around an hour after sunset. It captured two images, which were then stitched by the Curiosity team that revealed a panoramic image of Earth and Venus in a single frame.

The Curiosity Rover image barely shows the Earth and Venus planets -- they appear like tiny specks in a brightly lit Martian sky.

According to Mastcam co-investigator Mark Lemmon from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, this time of year on Mars, there's more dust in the air to reflect sunlight, making it particularly bright.

He explained, "Even moderately bright stars were not visible when this image of Venus was taken. Earth also has bright twilights after some large volcanic eruptions."

NASA

The NASA Curiosity rover images also reveal that it is at the top of rock feature Tower Butte in Mars¡¯s ¡®clay-bearing unit¡¯ -- an area the rover is exploring and learning about since a year.

The Mars Curiosity rover has been sending data and images from the Martian surface since the year 2012 and hopefully, it continues to do so for years to come.