Bye-bye, Curiosity

Posted By Emily Lakdawalla

2011/11/29 09:35 CST

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A few fortunate (and forward-thinking) skywatchers looked upward in the hours after Curiosity's launch and were able to see the spacecraft leaving Earth. For the skywatchers in Australia and east Asia, the spacecraft was close enough for viewers to see a transparent plume of gas behind the spent Centaur upper stage, resolved separately from the rover's cruise stage, passing in front of distant stars. Here's a photo, and below that, a really amazing video. Click through to watch this one in 1080p high-definition; at that scale, you're looking at it at the same resolution at which it was originally recorded.

Duncan Waldron, Brisbane Planetarium

Curiosity and its Centaur departing Earth

The Curiosity rover on its way to Mars, taken around 16:30 UT on November 26, just over an hour after its launch. The yellow circle shows the spacecraft; the fan-shaped plume is from the Centaur upper stage, the rocket that had just fired to send Curiosity from Earth orbit on to Mars.

About 9 hours later, Austrian amateur observer Gerhard Dangl recorded another lovely time-lapse movie, of a much more distant, star-like Curiosity. In the 36 minutes comprising this video, Curiosity traveled 10,000 kilometers farther from Earth.

How amazing to be able to watch a spacecraft actually departing Earth with your own eyes. One day, will we be able to look up at such a thing, and know that there are humans aboard?