NASA's Curiosity Mars rover snapped a photo of Earth from the Red Planet and the tiny spec that is our planet reminds us just how far from home it is.

352 million miles to be accurate, a journey that began on Nov. 26, 2011 and took the NASA spacecraft eight-and-a-half months to bring Curiosity to Mars. After a year-and-a-half on the Red Planet, Curiosity has already provided a wealth of information and has yet to even reach its ultimate goal.

NASA posted the photo from Curiosity's official Twitter account with the message, "Look Back in Wonder... My 1st picture of Earth from the surface of Mars."

Curiosity was assembled and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology. According to CNN, NASA processed the image, taken 80 minutes after sunset, to remove cosmic rays. Curiosity has photographed the Martian horizon before, but never one where Earth is visible.

"A human observer with normal vision, if standing on Mars, could easily see Earth and the moon as two distinct, bright 'evening stars,'" according to NASA.

Curiosity's main mission is to reach Mount Sharp, the mountain at the center of the rover's landing spot, the Gale Crater. Mount Sharp is believed to hold rich evidence of Mars' environmental past. Studying it will likely help scientists definitively determine what ancient Mars was like.

Curiosity has already shown from various samples that there was a time in Mars' history where the planet could support microbial life. However, other studies have shown that the Red Planet's atmosphere became degraded and is no longer in the sun's habitable zone.

Jan. 31 marked Curiosity's 529th Martian day, CLICK HERE to see full-res photos taken from that day. CLICK HERE to see a full-res image zoomed in the Earth and its moon.

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