NASA’s Curiosity Takes First Ever Picture of Earth from Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover captured the first image of Earth from the Marian surface. The image shows our home planet as a bright tiny speck in the Martian sky looking like an evening star with the moon shining nearby.

The image of the Earth and moon was captured Jan. 31, 2014 using the left eye camera also called the 'Mastcam'. This first ever picture of Earth captured by rover was taken nearly 80 minutes after the sunset on the 529^th Martian day of rover's mission to the Red Planet.

This striking image has been edited to wipe away the effects of the cosmic rays.

Describing the image NASA officials said, "A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright 'evening stars'".

 When rover captured this image, the approximate distance between Earth and Mars was about 99 million miles.

"Look Back in Wonder," reads the text from the Curiosity Rover's official Twitter feed. "My 1st picture of Earth from the surface of Mars."

Look Back in Wonder... My 1st picture of Earth from the surface of Mars. Info: https://t.co/JMMMmiAEX0 pic.twitter.com/xWOJdMqMVq

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) February 6, 2014

Another famous image of Earth from space was the one captured by Voyager 1 Spacecraft in which Earth appeared like a 'pale blue dot'.

Curiosity rover, the car-sized machine that was launched in 2012, has been exploring the Gale Crater to determine if the planet supports microbial life. Currently, Curiosity has to overcome a challenge before arriving at its next target location KMS-9, which is half a mile from its current location.