--- title: See the Earth and Moon from Mars in New NASA Image description: NASA released a composite image of Earth and the moon on Friday, combining the best Earth image with the best moon image canonical: https://time.com/4626693/earth-moon-from-mars-nasa-image/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-07T21:00:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:36:02.128Z article:section: Science og:title: This Is What the Earth and the Moon Look Like From Mars og:description: NASA's images of the Earth and the moon were processed separately and then combined og:url: https://time.com/4626693/earth-moon-from-mars-nasa-image/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt323ee96edb4950a5/6988b4adfb4eac657e89052d/earth-moon-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: earth-moon-mars og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What the Earth and the Moon Look Like From Mars twitter:description: NASA's images of the Earth and the moon were processed separately and then combined twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt323ee96edb4950a5/6988b4adfb4eac657e89052d/earth-moon-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Earth and Moon from Mars in New NASA Image by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Jan 7, 2017 9:00 PM UTC  The Earth and the moon, as seen from Mars, via a composite image from four sets of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured on Nov. 20, 2016\. Each image was processed separately prior to combining to ensure the moon is visible, and retains the correct sizes and positions of both relative to each other. The Earth and the moon, as seen from Mars, via a composite image from four sets of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured on Nov. 20, 2016\. Each image was processed separately prior to combining to ensure the moon is visible, and retains the correct sizes and positions of both relative to each other.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona by [TIME Photo](https://time.com/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Jan 7, 2017 9:00 PM UTC NASA [released a composite image](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21260) of [Earth](http://time.com/timelapse2016/) and the [moon](http://time.com/4534917/moon-lunar-occultation-star/) on Friday, combining the best image of Earth with the best image of the moon. The images were captured on Nov. 20, 2016 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. At the time, Mars was about 127 million miles from Earth. Both images were processed separately and then combined due to the difference in the brightness of both bodies. “The moon is much darker than Earth and would barely be visible at the same brightness scale as Earth,” NASA said. The image still reflects the correct size and positions of both bodies. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4626693/earth-moon-from-mars-nasa-image/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4626693/earth-moon-from-mars-nasa-image/"},"headline":"See the Earth and Moon from Mars in New NASA Image","datePublished":"2017-01-07T21:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:36:02.128Z","description":"NASA's images of the Earth and the moon were processed separately and then combined","url":"https://time.com/4626693/earth-moon-from-mars-nasa-image/","keywords":["Space","NASA","Mars","moon","earth","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt323ee96edb4950a5/6988b4adfb4eac657e89052d/earth-moon-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt323ee96edb4950a5/6988b4adfb4eac657e89052d/earth-moon-mars.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"earth-moon-mars","caption":"The Earth and the moon, as seen from Mars, via a composite image from four sets of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, captured on Nov. 20, 2016. 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