China’s first Mars probe photographs Earth, Moon

Beijing: China’s Mars probe, Tianwen-1, captured an image of the Earth and Moon, about 1.2 million km from Earth, the China National Space Administration said on Tuesday.

China launched its first Mars mission Tianwen-1, which means Questions to Heaven, on July 23, marking the country’s first step in planetary exploration of the solar system. Tianwen-1 took a photo of the Earth and Moon with an optical navigation sensor on Monday.

In the black-and-white picture, the Earth and the Moon, one large and one small, were both crescent-shaped, watching each other in the vast universe.