This Is What The Earth And Moon Look Like From Mars

​We're used to two sorts of images of the Earth from space: the tiny, nondescript "pale blue dot," and beautiful images from satellites in orbit. 

But this new shot by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a new perspective: the Earth and Moon from Mars. The detail of the image is nothing special — although it's cool to be able to make out the continents —  but the perspective of the Earth and Moon together is interesting. Check it out: 

A note – the Earth and moon look much closer than they actually are because of the Moon's orbital position at the time: 

Earth and the moon appear closer than they actually are in this image because the observation was planned for a time at which the moon was almost directly behind Earth, from Mars' point of view, to see the Earth-facing side of the moon. 

[JPL/NASA]