--- title: Mars Curiosity Rover Takes Its First Picture of Earth description: The Curiosity Rover posted its first picture of Earth from the surface of Mars to its official Twitter feed Thursday. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/431509044042272768 You can see Earth's... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7218326/curiosity-rover-earth-mars/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-07T01:18:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-25T06:05:29.357Z article:section: Science og:title: Mars Curiosity Rover Takes Its First Picture of Earth og:description: The Curiosity Rover posted its first picture of Earth from the surface of Mars to its official Twitter feed Thursday. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/431509044042272768 You can see Earth's... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7218326/curiosity-rover-earth-mars/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecd7983e7fb6f9bc/6998b5859fbc7c9b78d9828c/curiosity_mars_02.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Mars, Curiosity Rover, Feb. 3, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mars Curiosity Rover Takes Its First Picture of Earth twitter:description: The Curiosity Rover posted its first picture of Earth from the surface of Mars to its official Twitter feed Thursday. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/431509044042272768 You can see Earth's... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecd7983e7fb6f9bc/6998b5859fbc7c9b78d9828c/curiosity_mars_02.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) # Curiosity Rover Takes Its First Pic of Earth From Mars by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Feb 7, 2014 1:18 AM UTC  Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site, Cropped This rectangular version of a self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines dozens of exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 177th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Feb. 3, 2013). The rover is positioned at a patch of flat outcrop called "John Klein," which was selected as the site for the first rock-drilling activities by Curiosity. The self-portrait was acquired to document the drilling site. The rover's robotic arm is not visible in the mosaic. MAHLI, which took the component images for this mosaic, is mounted on a turret at the end of the arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images or portions of images used in the mosaic. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, developed, built and operates MAHLI. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and the mission's Curiosity rover for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site, Cropped This rectangular version of a self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines dozens of exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 177th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Feb. 3, 2013). The rover is positioned at a patch of flat outcrop called "John Klein," which was selected as the site for the first rock-drilling activities by Curiosity. The self-portrait was acquired to document the drilling site. The rover's robotic arm is not visible in the mosaic. MAHLI, which took the component images for this mosaic, is mounted on a turret at the end of the arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images or portions of images used in the mosaic. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, developed, built and operates MAHLI. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project and the mission's Curiosity rover for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Feb 7, 2014 1:18 AM UTC The Curiosity Rover [posted](https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/431509044042272768) its first picture of Earth from the surface of Mars to its official Twitter feed Thursday. > [](https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/431509044042272768) You can see Earth’s moon in the image, too. The pictures were taken on the rover’s 529th Martian day (Jan. 31, 2014) about 80 minutes after sunset, [according to](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-039) NASA’s website. NASA is using the Curiosity rover to track Mars’ ancient habitable environments. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7218326/curiosity-rover-earth-mars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7218326/curiosity-rover-earth-mars/"},"headline":"Curiosity Rover Takes Its First Pic of Earth From Mars","datePublished":"2014-02-07T01:18:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T06:05:29.357Z","description":"The Curiosity Rover posted its first picture of Earth from the surface of Mars to its official Twitter feed Thursday. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity/status/431509044042272768 You can see Earth's...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7218326/curiosity-rover-earth-mars/","keywords":["NASA","Mars"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecd7983e7fb6f9bc/6998b5859fbc7c9b78d9828c/curiosity_mars_02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecd7983e7fb6f9bc/6998b5859fbc7c9b78d9828c/curiosity_mars_02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mars, Curiosity Rover, Feb. 3, 2013.","caption":"Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site, Cropped This rectangular version of a self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines dozens of exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 177th Martian da","creditText":"NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7218326/curiosity-rover-earth-mars/","name":"Curiosity Rover Takes Its First Pic of Earth From Mars"}}]}] ```