This Is What Earth Looks Like From Mars

The Mars rover Curiosity paused last week to take a photo of its home planet, and NASA points out that Earth is "shining brighter than any star in the Martian light." If you look carefully—one of the images provides help—you can pick out the moon just below it. Still, we're just a speck in the sky. Humbled? Try these reactions:

• Discovery: "This photo may make you feel insignificant, especially as Earth is barely a pixel wide, but it proves that, as a race, we are capable of profound things—such as sending robotic emissaries throughout the solar system to observe the Earth from afar, ultimately helping us understand our place in the Cosmos."
• Fox News: It quotes Carl Sagan, from his book Pale Blue Dot, in writing about a similar image taken by Voyager I: "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives."

(More Mars stories.)