It ’s not often we see our satellite and satellite from the view of another world , and we ’ve never seen them like this before . That little white dot zooming around the slenderly bigger white dot , that ’s the Moon orb Earth as seen from Mars .
To celebrate its 20thanniversary , the European Space Agency ’s ( ESA ) Mars Express orbiter not only give us theworld ’s first hot stream from Marsbut it turn back to face its home plate satellite and snapped a nostalgic kinfolk portraiture of Earth and the Moon inspired by the iconic “ Pale Blue Dot ” .
Thirty - three years ago , on its way out of the Solar System , Voyagerturned around one last timeand took what would become an iconic image of our planet . “ That ’s here . That ’s home . That ’s us , ” read Carl Sagan , who was subservient in that image being necessitate , when it was first let go . This new mental image of Earth and its lifelike artificial satellite may not be the most impressive of our satellite you ’ve ever find out , but it still manages to capture that flavor of “ Hey , wow , that ’s us ” .
The images show the Earth and Moon on May 15, 21, and 27, and 24 March 2025, capturing about half of the Moon’s monthly orbit.Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
“ [ W]e desire to bring Carl Sagan ’s reflections back to the present day,”explainedJorge Hernández Bernal , who is part of the Mars Express team behind the double .
“ In these simple snapshots from Mars Express , Earth has the equivalent size as an ant regard from a distance of 100 meter [ 328 feet ] , and we are all in there . Even though we have seen images like these before , it is still humbling to pause and think : we postulate to look after the pale blueish Lucy in the sky with diamonds , there is no planet B. ”
The first planetary simulacrum Mars Express train 20 years ago is also of Earth and the Moon taken from 8 million klick ( ~5 million naut mi ) away on its path to Mars ( below ) . The new image are taken from 300 million kilometers ( 186.4 million miles ) out as it ’s completed over 24,000 orbit of the Red Planet .
Taken on 24 March 2025, Mars Express takes its first photo looking back at Earth and the Moon from a distance of 8 million kilometers on its way to Mars.Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
The Mars Express mission was originally designed to last justone Martian year(687 Earth days ) . In the 20 years since its launch , it has traveled over 1.1 billion kilometers in its orbit of Mars , communicated with 12 other orbiters , landers , and scouter that have since landed on the satellite ’s control surface , and chip in to over 1,800 published scientific papers helping us explore Mars ’s atmospheric state , mood , and aerofoil . It present no signs of slowing down and has been approved to continue until at least 2026 .
“ Perhaps it will only be another 20 years before humans can look up from the airfoil of Mars to see Earth in the night sky , ” said Mars Express project scientist Colin Wilson .
