{"id":18521,"date":"2018-05-15T22:28:22","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T14:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/smallest-interplanetary-probe-snaps-a-picture-of-our-pale-blue-dot-and-the-moon\/"},"modified":"2018-05-15T22:28:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T14:28:22","slug":"smallest-interplanetary-probe-snaps-a-picture-of-our-pale-blue-dot-and-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/smallest-interplanetary-probe-snaps-a-picture-of-our-pale-blue-dot-and-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Smallest interplanetary probe snaps a picture of our Pale Blue Dot (and the moon)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pale
The nanosatellite known as MarCO-B or WALL-E took this picture of Earth and the moon from a distance of more than 620,000 miles. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You don\u2019t have to fly beyond the orbit of Neptune to see our home planet as a Pale Blue Dot. One of the first nanosatellites to travel beyond Earth orbit has proven that in a new version of the view first made famous by \u201cCosmos\u201d astronomer Carl Sagan.<\/p>\n

This picture, showing Earth as a bluish speck and the moon as a faint blip, was captured by one of the two MarCO CubeSats that were launched toward Mars on May 5 as piggyback payloads for NASA\u2019s Mars InSight mission.<\/p>\n

Each of the MarCO (\u201cMar<\/strong>s C<\/strong>ube O<\/strong>ne\u201d) probes is roughly the size of a small briefcase, and stuffed with experimental equipment that will come into play during their Red Planet flyby in November.<\/p>\n

Last week, the MarCO-B spacecraft (also known as WALL-E) snapped a picture with its wide-field color camera to check the deployment of its high-gain antenna.<\/p>\n

The good news is that the pint-sized antenna has unfolded properly, as seen in the picture. The better news is that Earth and the moon showed up in the frame as well.<\/p>\n