New images from Mars orbiter show the Earth and Moon

What it’s like seeing our home planet from the red planet
By | Published: January 10, 2017 | Last updated on May 18, 2023
earthmoon630x343
How the Earth and Moon look from Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona Photo

It’s always exciting to see new images of Earth to remind us what our planet looks like from afar.            

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released a new image on Friday that shows the Earth and Moon from Mars.

Mars was 127 million miles away from Earth when the picture was taken on November 20 using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE).

Alfred McEwen, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and principal investigator for the HiRISE camera, said in a post on the HiRISE website that the picture is a compilation of the best shots of Earth and Mars out of four sets of images.

“The Moon is much darker than Earth and would barely be visible at the same brightness scale as Earth,” McEwen said. “The combined view retains the correct sizes and positions of the two bodies relative to each other.”

The last time HiRISE shared a photo of the Earth and Moon together was when Earth was 88 million miles away from Mars in 2007.