Crescent Mars

A thin crescent Mars (white) captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS (Optical, Spectrocopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System) instrument in February 2007 during its long journey to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Nightglow in the planet’s atmosphere can be seen at the 11 o’clock position. The red and fuzzy blue haloes are a result of internal reflections within the camera’s optics.

The images from the cruise phase and the flybys at Mars and Earth were recently released and are accessible to the public in ESA’s Planetary Science Archive and NASA’s Planetary Data System.