you are here -------->

[underpants]

This is a picture from the Curiosity Rover on Mars showing Earth from the Perspective of Mars. You are literally looking at your home from the Perspective of another planet. Epic times indeed

[Lasher]

1. I thought Mercury and Venus came first?

WTF, and I thought Pluto was a planet.

[hrmjustin]

2. They took away Pluto's status as a planet. I have no idea why.

[Lasher]

3. I actually understand why.

But I'm an old fashioned kinda guy, and I'm gonna stick with the nine planet thing.

[hrmjustin]

5. I did a third grade science project on the planets and I got first prize.

Every since than I loved anything to do with the planets. 9 it is to me as well.

[1monster]

46. Oh, the Sun is very hot.

Mercury's hot, too.
Venus is the brightest planet,
And Earth is home to me and you.
Mars is the red one
And Jupiter most wide
Saturn has those icy rings
And Uranus spins on its side.
Neptune very windy
And Pluto's very small...
Oh, we wanted to name the planets
And now we've named them all.

(As sung by Steve on Blue's Clues)

With lyrics like these, how the heck could have those scientists EVER have made the decision to demote Pluto?

[freshwest]

14. Prejudice against Canis Majoris. Home of Sirius the Dog Star (Orion's Hound).

Ashamed of Earth's astronomers going along with this. And I am never sirius anymore.

[ErikJ]

15. Pluto is only half the diameter of our moon. Its a giant asteroid now

I guess.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

19. Pluto is too small and has an odd orbit

or some such nonsense.

[AtheistCrusader]

34. Pluto is so small there are other larger bodies around that orbit that would also have to be called

planets, if we kept Pluto. 2003 UB313 was discovered several years ago. It's larger than Pluto, and 3 times as far from the sun.

Pluto simply isn't a planet. OR, we have a LOT of planets. Pick one.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

39. I think 8 is a good number... for now at least!

I've read about a possible as yet undiscovered planet...

[MrMickeysMom]

26. Cause they're just picky... that's why...

[RebelOne]

6. Of course, they are first,

but Earth is the 3rd planet and Mars is the 4th planet. That is why you would see Earth from the Martian sky.

[Lasher]

8. Maybe I'm lookin' at the picture wrong.

What's them other two dots?

[pinboy3niner]

17. The other two dots...

...are Death Stars.

[Lasher]

18. What kinda fool do you take me for?

I know there was only one death star.

[Iggo]

21. Deimos and Phobos?

[Lasher]

22. Good guess.

I'll bet that's it.

[AtheistCrusader]

36. Could be, or Canopus, Rigel, Venus, etc.

Mars atmosphere is pretty thin stuff. An astronomer's dream.

Deimos is usually significantly dimmer due to it's size though.

[sabrina 1]

35. They do, you are looking 'back' from Mars. We see only Mercury and Venus looking that way.

But if you are on Mars, you see Earth, Mercury, Venus.

Pluto is no longer a planet, for some reason which I can't explain.

[AtheistCrusader]

37. Pluto is too small, and we've found stuff in the sol system that is larger.

Significantly larger, all the way out to the Kuiper belt.

[kentauros]

4. Here, here!

There, there!







Where, where?

(FT for those that missed it...)

[WinkyDink]

7. Freaky-deaky.

[ZombieHorde]

9. So, Mars is spying on us?!

Fuckers.

[CrispyQ]

10. I want one.

Link to orig img, please?

[Marrah_G]

11. Love this

[neverforget]

12. Hate to say this but it's a fake

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/08/10/an-unreal-mars-skyline/#.UXh9RbXBOSo


Here's a real picture of Earth from Mars.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4542423536/#/

[lastlib]

16. Still, it makes the possibility....

...of herpes seem so insignificant, doesn't it?

[underpants]

31. Thanks

I did try to look it up. Saw it on FB so I did check....well not enough

[AtheistCrusader]

38. That's a much older photo, from the much older optics on Discovery.

But I agree, the OP image does seem to be enhanced, if not simulated outright.

[caraher]

13. sadly, this is fake

See the Bad Astronomy blog. It's from some "planetarium" software package that lets you generate views of the sky from other planets...

... there is solid evidence the picture isn’t real! Look to the lower left corner of the image; see the letters there?

See? The arrow points to the letters, and I zoomed in and enhanced the brightness and contrast a bit. The letters are "NE". As in, "northeast".

This is exactly what you see when you use planetarium software on a computer to display the sky. Programs like Starry Night, SkySafari, and so on will put the cardinal directions (north, south, and so on) along the horizon to indicate what direction you’re looking. And many of them will display the appearance of the sky from other planets. It’s clear that’s what we have here: a rendered view from Mars using planetarium software.

[cynatnite]

27. Bummer. Thanks for the link. n/t

[FreeBC]

44. FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE

You posted this almost a day ago and yet still this item remains on the DU front page. Since there is no way to report fake items, maybe my reply title will catch the eye of unsuspecting readers who may be under the impression that fake items are removed from DU when they are found to be fake.

This isn't nearly as bad as the NY Post item that appeared on DU falsely implicating non-suspects in the wake of the marathon bombings, but c'mon, how about we stick to the truth here?

[tblue37]

20. Link to page online? (I can't see the pic in the post.) nt

[Whisp]

23. that would be a great kiosk for some big mall or something.

you are here.

[BootinUp]

25. Fuggin awesome. nt

[krispos42]

28. I saw Neil deGrasse Tyson on Monday night at Fairfield University...

...he was awesome!

And he showed this picture...





Earth is 8 (IIRC) pixels, captured by Cassini. Left side of the rings, and slightly above.

[brush]

29. WOW! WOW! WOW! EPIC TIMES INDEED! nt

[Duppers]

30. Yep, sorry, this is fake.

This was pointed out by many on FB many months ago.

[Aldo Leopold]

32. Really fucking cool. How insignificant we really are. Thanks for posting! eom

[RT Atlanta]

33. actual photo from one of the Mars Rovers

[snagglepuss]

42. Amazing . Really mind blowing.

Thanks.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

40. And yet check out how long it takes to get there traveling at 3x the speed of light!

http://www.distancetomars.com/

We're talking about a very large amount of distance to cover. Your image makes it even more fascinating, since from this perspective, Earth doesn't look that far, but click on the link above, and at three times the speed of light, it still takes about a minute and 5 seconds to get to Mars. Think about it; at three times the speed of light, it takes a little over a minute to get to Earth in the image in your image!!

That really blows my mind!!!

[snagglepuss]

41. WOW

thanks for posting.

[FreeBC]

43. This and several Boston Marathon postings make a good case for a new "alert abuse" category

I suggest DU add a new category for reporting abuse called "Fake".

This is old and was debunked some time ago. It is a fake picture. Yet it remains on DU's front page. But you can't really report it with the current alert categories because it's not abusive.

We mock Fox News and their court battle to preserve their ability to lie to their audience. How about we hold DU to a higher standard and provide a mechanism to get rid of fake items?

We do care about the truth right?

[caraher]

45. Interesting point

It's not that there's nothing we can do, though - we can ask the person who started the thread to either delete the OP or edit it to add a disclaimer. Did you try that? (I didn't - I simply posted what I found about the picture.) I'd certainly delete or edit my post if I found out I'd inadvertently passed on something bogus...

But the question still remains regarding what to do about cases where the person who starts a thread doesn't want to do either (especially when it regards more politically charged topics). Could be a good thing to bring up in Ask the Administrators. In general I don't think the alert mechanism is appropriate for scrubbing items whose truth is potentially in dispute, but on the other hand DU already takes a hard line against certain types of conspiracy theory nonsense, and extending that principle to hoaxes and other thoroughly debunked materials might make sense.

[CTyankee]

47. Mary's Violet Eyes Make Jack Stay Up Nights Perhaps.

That is how I understood the order of the planets from the sun out.