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Wednesday, December 31, 2025

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Views Earth Setting, Phobos Moon Rising

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Views Earth Setting, Phobos Moon Rising

Figure A: This shows the Curiosity rover's Mastcam image with the inset where Phobos is on the left and Earth is on the right. 
Figure B: The inset. Phobos is on the left and Earth is on the right. 

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, to capture this view of Earth setting while Phobos, one of Mars' two moons, is rising. It is the first time an image of the two celestial bodies have been captured together from the surface of Mars.

The image is a composite of five short exposures and 12 long exposures all taken on Sept. 5, 2024, the 4,295th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's mission. An inset in the image shows Phobos on the left and Earth on the right. From the rover's perspective, the inset area would be about half the width of a thumb held at arm's length.

The image shows the sky over Texoli, a butte on lower Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain that Curiosity has been ascending since 2014.

Curiosity was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates Mastcam.

For more about Curiosity, visit: science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity

For more information on NASA's Mars missions, visit: mars.nasa.gov

Celebrating 13+ Years on Mars (2012-2025)
Mission Name: Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Rover Name: Curiosity
Main Job: To determine if Mars was ever habitable to microbial life. 
Launch: Nov. 6, 2011
Landing Date: Aug. 5, 2012, Gale Crater, Mars

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
Release Date: Sept. 13, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planets #Earth #Mars #Moons #Phobos #Astrobiology #Geology #CuriosityRover #MSL #Sol4295 #MountSharp #Texoli #Butte #GaleCrater #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #SpaceEngineering #MSSS #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

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