Mars After Dark: What NASA Rovers Really See

Would the night sky on Mars be filled with twinkling stars like we’re used to seeing on Earth? That depends on how you’re looking. If there was a space observatory on Mars, you could expect to see millions of galaxies, but those aren’t the kinds of images that NASA’s rovers are designed to capture.

What is said in the film

Have you ever wondered what the night sky looks like on Mars? You might have seen digitally altered images like this one on social media. While it's certainly magical, it's not what NASA's rovers have been capturing on the Red Planet. These are two separate images that have been combined. In the foreground of this altered image, you see Curiosity.

In the background, a stunning starfield. Now here's the original image from Curiosity. You can see it was daytime when the rover snapped that selfie. And here's the original starfield, which comes from a space observatory on Earth. If you had a space observatory on Mars, you could get an image like that.

But Curiosity's cameras do something different. They're optimized to showcase Mars' unique landscapes and intriguing features, If you were lying on Mars on a clear night, the sky would likely remind you of our sky and Earth, especially in the darkest places like remote deserts or mountaintops. Until we ourselves can go camping on Mars, we'll continue to view the planet and its sky through the eyes of our robotic rovers.

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