# Question about Curiosity

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-curiosity/630849>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 8, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-curiosity/630849 "2012-08-08T13:07:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-curiosity/630849/1 "2012-08-08T13:07:43Z")

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Will the Curiosity rover ever get a visible view of Earth in the martian night sky? Any plans for a [Pale Blue Dot 2.0](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot) picture?

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**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-curiosity/630849/2 "2012-08-08T13:12:32Z")

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I don’t see why not.

We already have pictures of Earth from Mars, as seen [here](http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/22may_alienearth/), for example.

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**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-curiosity/630849/3 "2012-08-08T13:14:11Z")

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It’s certainly possible, the Spirit rover was able to take a picture of the Mars sky that had Earth visible, and the Curiosity rover has better cameras. I don’t know if they’re specifically planning on catching that shot, but even if not it’ll probably happen just by chance sooner or later.

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-curiosity/630849/4 "2012-08-08T13:30:07Z")

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> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I don’t see why not.
> 
> We already have pictures of Earth from Mars, as seen [here](http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/22may_alienearth/), for example.

That’s from orbit, not from the surface (and through thousands of feet of atmosphere).

[QUOTE=AndrewL]  
It’s certainly possible, the Spirit rover was able to take a picture of the Mars sky that had Earth visible  
[/QUOTE]

[Interesting](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/PIA05547-Spirit_Rover-Earth_seen_from_Mars.png). I look forward to some more higher res images. Here’s a good wiki article as well:

> **[Astronomy on Mars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy_on_Mars)**
>
> Many astronomical phenomena viewed from the planet Mars are the same as or similar to those seen from Earth; but some (e.g. the view of Earth as an evening/morning star) are quite different. For example, because the atmosphere of Mars does not contain an ozone layer, it is also possible to make UV observations from the surface of Mars.
> Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19°, quite close to the value of 23.44° for Earth, and thus Mars has seasons of spring, summer, autumn, winter as Earth does. As on E...