For the first time, the European Space Agency (ESA) has published live images of the planet Mars on YouTube.
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The event is part of celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the launch of the agency’s Mars Express orbiter.
His mission: to collect as many details and three-dimensional images as possible from the surface of the planet Mars in order to create a complete portrait of it.
ESA estimates the delay in transmitting the images from Mars to Earth at 17 minutes, followed by another minute for transmission through the cables and to the servers.
Depending on the position of the two planets, it could take anywhere from 3 to 22 minutes for the information to reach its destination, reports CNN.
“Note that we have never attempted anything like this before, so the exact timings of the ground signals remain somewhat uncertain,” the agency said in a statement ahead of the broadcast.
Colin Wilson, a project scientist, explains that no stars were visible at the time because Mars is very bright.
YouTube | European Space Agency, ESA