Curiosity Spots Earth and Venus from
Curiosity Spots Earth and Venus from The Mast Camera (Mastcam) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has captured new images of Earth and Venus as seen from the surface of the Red Planet.
Two images of the night sky were combined to show Earth and Venus as seen by Curiosity on June 5, 2020. The planets appear as pinpoints of light owing to a combination of distance and dust in the air. A rock feature called Tower Butte is visible at bottom. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Since landing in 2012, Curiosity has captured blue Martian sunsets, Earth and the Moon, minor planets Ceres and Vesta, planet Mercury, Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, and comets.
The new image was taken about 75 minutes after sunset on June 5, 2020 (2,784th Martian day, or sol, of the mission).
Earth and Venus appear as mere pinpoints of light, owing to a combination of distance and dust in the air; they would normally look like very bright stars.
“The brief photo session was partly to gauge the twilight brightness,” said Mastcam co-investigator Dr. Mark Lemmon, a researcher at the Space Science Institute.
“During this time of year on Mars, there’s more dust in the air to reflect sunlight, making it particularly bright.”
“Even moderately bright stars were not visible when this image of Venus was taken,” he added.
“Earth also has bright twilights after some large volcanic eruptions.”
At the bottom of the new images is the top of a rock feature called Tower Butte in the clay-bearing unit, which Curiosity has been exploring for more than a year.
When Curiosity’s Mastcam imaged Earth and its Moon in 2014, the color and brightness of the sky were significantly different than from these most recent images because of all the high-altitude dust in the Martian air right now.
