Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science

Earth and Luna from MRO

Nothing to write home about visually, but the idea of seeing our Pale Blue Dot from deep space is always neat:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04159

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04160

"The purpose of acquiring an image of Earth and the Moon just three days after launch was to help the Mars Color Imager science team obtain a measure, in space, of the instrument's sensitivity, as well as to check that no contamination occurred on the camera during launch. Prior to launch, the team determined that, three days out from Earth, the planet would only be about 4.77 pixels across, and the Moon would be less than one pixel in size, as seen from the Mars Color Imager's wide-angle perspective. If the team waited any longer than three days to test the camera's performance in space, Earth would be too small to obtain meaningful results."

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