Curiosity Rover Captures Historic Image of Earth and Mars’ Moon Phobos

NASA's Curiosity rover has made history by capturing the first-ever image of both Earth and Mars' moon Phobos from the surface of the Red Planet. The photo, taken on September 5, 2024, is a stunning composite of five short and 12 long exposures, showcasing Earth setting in the Martian sky while Phobos rises.

The image, released by NASA on September 13, features a rocky Martian landscape with Earth and Phobos visible in the upper right. An inset zooms in on the two celestial bodies for closer inspection. This marks the first time these two objects have been photographed together from Mars.

Phobos, named after the Greek god of fear, is the larger of Mars’ two moons and orbits the planet at a mere 6,000 kilometers, making it the closest moon to its host planet in the solar system.

The foreground of the image highlights the Texoli butte on lower Mount Sharp, a 5-kilometer-tall peak that Curiosity has been climbing since 2014 as part of its mission to study Mars' geological history.